Winning was his forte

MYSORE: Unlike other politicians, politics was not a profession for M Rajashekar Murthy, 89, who accorded top priority to honesty and integrity.
Neither he compromised with his principles nor yielded to any external pressure while taking decisions in his six decades of political life. His political acumen came to the fore in 1989 when he as the finance minister in Veerendra Patil's cabinet revived economy.In early 90s, as the revenue minister he ordered a high level official inquiry into land grabbing reported from Mysore taluk when the real estate business was just picking up.
Born in Malangi village in T Narsipur taluk of Mysore district, he got his early education in Mysore. Though he got a law degree from Lucknow University, he didn't pursue it. Instead, he began a private bus service, just before entering politics at the behest of his friends and relatives. He won a seat in the state assembly from Yelandur constituency in 1952 general elections in the erstwhile Mysore state. When the state was reunified on linguistic basis, he shifted to T Narsipur constituency from where he continued to win elections till 1967. In 1989, he shifted his constituency to Chamundeshwari from where he won. In 1980, when he joined Congress from Janata Party along with his political comrade Veerendra Patil he made his maiden entry into Lok Sabha.
Rajashekar Murthy, who held industries portfolio in Veerendra Patil's cabinet in late sixties, was said to be instrumental in establishing many big industries in the city including the now JK Tyres-owned Vikrant Tyres and BEML. In mid nineties, he entered Rajya Sabha to become the surface transport minister in P V Narasimha Rao's cabinet. Piqued over the choice of S M Krishna as KPCC chief in 1998, he left Congress to join BJP. In 2005, he quit BJP and joined JD(S) when the BJP high command sidelined him in the party. He was the Rajya Sabha member from 1994 till his death. His term was to end in April 2012.
Becoming a chief minister remained a dream for octogenarian Rajashekar Murthy, who was considered an influential leader of Lingayat community. Recently, there were reports of his returning to the Congress. Confirming his possibility of returning to Congress by mid-February, he once said that at a dinner party, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told him that though Congress leaders had no objection to him joining the party, they felt he is too old to take charge of the party in Karnataka.
"However, in a lighter vein I asked the Prime Minister to summon all the leaders who are complaining of my age to a playground and blow a whistle for a walkathon competition. You give the party charge to the person who reaches the end mark first," he said, adding the PM had a hearty laugh at it.