BELGAUM: Senior Congress leader and former KPCC president V S Koujalgi (77) died at a private hospital here on Wednesday.
Koujalgi graduated as a mechanical engineer and served as a Sub-lieutenant in the Indian Navy unit in Pune. He hailed from Deshnur village in Bailhongal taluk.
He had participated in the 1965 India-Pakistan war. He was first elected to the Karnataka Assembly in 1972 from Arabhavi constituency. He served in the cabinet of Devaraj Urs and S M Krishna.
He also served as speaker of the Assembly from February 1993 to December 1994 and as KPCC president in 2000. The last rites were performed in Belgaum in the evening.