Bengaluru: Karnataka Congress MLA from Bagalkote, HY Meti, passed away at a private hospital here on Tuesday, according to party and hospital sources.

He was 79 and had been receiving treatment for respiratory problems and other age-related ailments, they said.

Meti, who served as Chairman of the Bagalkote Urban Development Authority, is survived by two sons and two daughters.

Sources stated that his mortal remains would be taken to Bagalkote in the evening, with the final rites likely to be performed on Wednesday afternoon.

Meti first represented the Guledgudda Assembly constituency in 1989, 1994, and 2004 as a member of the Janata Dal.

Following his election in 1994, he served as Minister for Forests, and in 1996 he was elected as MP from Bagalkote.

After the delimitation of constituencies, he contested from Bagalkote on a Congress ticket in 2008 but was defeated.

He was elected again in 2013 and served as Excise Minister in the then Siddaramaiah-led Congress government, though he lost the 2018 election.

He was regarded as one of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s close associates.

Siddaramaiah visited the hospital to pay his final respects to Meti.

Expressing his grief over Meti’s passing, the Chief Minister said, “I had visited the hospital last Thursday and inquired about his health. I was hopeful that he would recover and join us again. Both my hopes and wishes have been dashed.”

“Meti, who was in public life for a long time, was a politician who was pro-people and only concerned about the development of the constituency. The society has become poorer with his demise,” he posted on ‘X’.

PTI inputs