Mumbai, Oct 3: Veteran actor Ghanashyam Nayak, best known for his work as Nattu Kaka on the popular sitcom "Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah", passed away on Sunday after a long battle with cancer, producer Asit Kumarr Modi said.

The actor, who was in his late 70s, was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year.

Modi, who is the creator of "Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah", said the actor's health deteriorated in the past few days.

"He passed away today evening. He wasn't keeping well for a long time. He had cancer. He always wanted to keep shooting. Even though he was unwell, work would always make him happy. I would look for opportunities to get him on the show. But it had become difficult for him to shoot. For the last two days he was extremely unwell," Modi told PTI.

Nayak appeared in nearly 100 Hindi and Gujarati films, apart from featuring on more than 300 TV serials.

The veteran actor was also known for his work in the Gujarati theatre.

Earlier this year, during his chemotherapy, Nayak had shot for a special episode of "Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah".

He is survived by his wife and three children.

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Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.

In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.

Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.

He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.

Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.

He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.

Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.

He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.