Former chief minister N Dharam Singh was a family man. Singh was keen to live with his family and it was for this purpose that he constructed a four-storey house at Sadashivanagar in Bengaluru, where he shifted recently.
Singh and his wife Prabhavati lived with their two sons Dr Ajay Singh and Vijay Singh and their families. Ajay is an MLA elected from Jewargi, which his father nurtured since 1978 and from where he was elected as MLA seven times. Vijay is a MLC elected in 2016 from Bidar local authorities constituency. Dharam Singh was Bidar MP between 2009 and 2014.
“It was a rare political household, where a former MP (Dharam Singh), sitting MLA (Ajay Singh) and sitting MLC (Vijay Singh) lived under the same roof,” a close aide of Dharam Singh said.
In a way, Singh’s keeness to live with his sons, reflected his personality. He was known for his gentle demeanour and it is said he knew most of the voters in his constituency by their name. It is this mild and harmless nature of Singh’s which is said to have helped him win the trust of voters for more than four decades, despite hailing from the micro-minority Rajput community in Karnataka.
A story goes that during Singh’s tenure as chief minister, a resident of Jewargi (who was in an inebriated state) visited his (Singh’s) house and for some reason, started abusing him loudly. Some of the ‘loyalists’ around Singh caught hold of the man. Though Singh asked them to let the man go, they started thrashing him. Immediately, Singh told the police to take those who thrashed the man into custody and thrash them. He told the loyalists, “That man is my voter and he has the right to abuse me. Who are you people to thrash him? I know your intentions.”
As soon as news about Singh’s demise broke on Thursday, a steady stream of visitors made a beeline to Singh’s house. Politicians cutting across party lines paid their last respects to Singh. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who was in Haveri, cancelled all his official engagements and rushed back to Bengaluru to pay his last respects to Singh. Siddaramaiah worked as Singh’s deputy when he was chief minister (2004-06). The mortal remains of Singh were kept briefly at Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) office on Queen’s Road. The long row of mourners, who came to pay homage to their beloved leader, seemed endless. Condolence messages poured in from across the state and nation.
Published 27 July 2017, 19:42 IST