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Former Union Minister Babagouda Rudragouda Patil passed away this morning at a private hospital in Belagavi. He was 80 years old.According to family sources, he was rushed to the hospital following sudden fluctuations in his blood pressure about a week back. It goes to the credit of Babagouda Patil as the only Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha(KRRS) leader to get elected from the Kittur Assembly constituency in the Belagavi district and adjoining Dharwad Rural constituency of Dharwad district in the maiden attempt during the 1989 general elections. The Farmers' Association led by Prof MD Nanjundaswamy, a law professor had unnerved the then Ramakrishna Hegde-led Janata Party government by calling for massive protests at the state capital and elsewhere across the state every now and then. Thanks to the tremendous response to the Farmers' movement during the early Eighties, it was also construed as one of the major factors responsible for the severe drubbing of the R Gundu Rao-led Con