Leaders pay tributes to Patel on his birthday

koodala sangama (bagalkot): the 72nd birthday of late chief minister j.h. patel was celebrated on monday with over 25,000 party workers and leaders from various political parties converging at koodala sangama. leaders of various political parties took part in the celebration. no one minced words when they said: ``if it were not patel, no one would have dared to venture into reorganising districts in karnataka.'' senior janata dal (u) leader ramakrishna hegde said: ``patel was an epitome of epicurean philosophy and at the same time had an ideological leaning towards socialism. ``i regret that he is not present to celebrate his 72nd birthday. and it pains me that he is not with us on this occasion to see how koodala sangama is being developed.'' hegde said that patel was a man who never rejected good things of life, but at the same time he was like a seer. recollecting the political developments in the janata dal when patel was made the cm, he said: ``though he was the natural choice for the post after deve gowda became the prime minister, for being the deputy chief minister in gowda's cabinet and senior most leader of the party, he never lobbied for cm's post.'' karnataka legislative assembly opposition leader jagadish shettar said: ``i was his fan and he was an inspiration to me during my earlier days in the assembly. i never missed an opportunity to hear his speech.'' congress minister kashappanavar said, ``if patel had not tried to develop this spiritual place -- koodala sangama -- the place would have remained underdeveloped still. rising above party politics, it was he who sanctioned rs 40 crore for the development of the place by creating koodala sangama development authority.'' state jd (u) president byre gowda who was the agriculture minister in patel's cabinet, said irrigation received a boost during his tenure as more than rs 6,000 crore was sanctioned. he said that it was during his days as cm that bijapur, raichur, belgaum and other districts in north karnataka were included in the scheme of development. others who spoke on the occasion were jd (u) leaders m.p. prakash, somashekar, nadagouda, congress minister chimmankatti. wife of the late cm sarvamangala patel, son mahima patel, basavaraj horatti were also present.