Mangaluru: Former BJP leader and Union minister V Dhananjay Kumar on Monday breathed his last in a private hospital in Mangaluru, Karnataka, after being in coma for several months.

Dhananjay Kumar was said to be suffering from multiple organ failure and was under medical treatment in a private hospital in Mangaluru. Reports also said that Dhananjay Kumar hasd no idea of what was happening politically as well as personally.

The 67-year-old Dhananjay Kumar hailed from Mangaluru and was a lawyer by profession. He began his political career in the youth wing of the BJP and later went on to become a member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly in 1983.

Dhananjay Kumar was Cabinet minister for civil aviation and tourism in 1996, Union minister of state for finance from 1999 to 2000 and Union minister of state for textiles from 2000 to 2003. He was elected as MLA from Mangaluru before he became an MP. He became a member of parliament from Mangalore constituency four consecutive times.

Dhananjay Kumar is said to be a staunch follower of Yeddyurappa. He even followed Yeddyurappa and quit the BJP to join the Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP) in December 2012. But two years later, Yeddyurappa joined the BJP again in January 2014, but Dhananjay Kumar was not welcomed back into the party.

When he was part of the BJP, Dhananjay Kumar was also the special representative of the Government of Karnataka to the Union Government in New Delhi.