Vatal Nagaraj

Vatal Nagaraj
Vatal Nagaraj in 2020
Personal details
Born	c. 1949[1] Vatalu
Political party	Kannada Chalavali Vatal Paksha

Vatal Madappa Nagaraj (born c.1949) is an Indian politician who was the Member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from Chamarajnagar. He is the founder and president of the Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Paksha.^[2][3][4]

In 1964 he led a two-month agitation demanding the destruction of a 150-year-old British Raj era cenotaph pillar marking the deaths of soldiers at the Siege of Bangalore in 1791. In October of that year the cenotaph was dismantled by the Bangalore City Corporation and a statue of Kempe Gowda now stands in its place.^[5]

Nagaraj served in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly until being defeated by C Guru Swamy in 2004.

He protested in 2017 against the comments of a famous South Indian actor Sathyaraj during the Cauvery Protest by Tamil Nadu Actors Association against Karnataka.^[6][7] The protest was called off later. In 2018 he started a new agitation on January 25 for water sharing from Mandovi River flowing from Goa.^[8] Some political critiques question the authenticity of Vatal's fight against Goa State for water sharing when he himself fights against Tamil Nadu government for Supreme court order to release water in Cauvery river.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. Nagaraj, Preethi (9 September 2016). "Nagaraj, man behind Cauvery protests in Karnataka, has 'staged' 10,000 protests". Hindustan Times.
2. "Vatal's life to be an open book". Retrieved 3 September 2016.
3. "Vatal Nagaraj calls for bandh on October 4". The Hindu. 12 September 2006. Archived from the original on 8 November 2012. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
4. "Vatal Nagaraj plays cupid on a chariot". The Hindu. 2011-02-15. Archived from the original on 7 June 2014. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
5. "Renaming the City". Bangalore Mirror.
6. "Kannada Group Holds Protest Against Baahubali Actor Sathyaraj". 20 April 2017.
7. Final Sathyaraj Apologises For His Anti-Kannada Remarks Over Cauvery Issue From 9 Years Ago http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2017/04/21/baahubali-sathyaraj-apologises-for-anti-kannada-remarks_a_22049097/
8. "For Mahadayi water, 2 bandhs in 10 days".