TDP MLA Bhuma Nagi Reddy passed away on Sunday, after suffering from a heart attack at the age of 53.
"In deep anguish and shock over the demise of TDP family member Bhuma Nagi Reddy garu. My deepest condolences. We will stand by his family," Andhra Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu tweeted.
This came just an hour after Naidu had tweeted that he was 'shocked' to hear about the politician's heart attack, and had spoken to his family members.
The TDP leader suffered a cardiac arrest while reading newspapers at his house in Allagadda in Kurnool district in the morning. He was shifted to a hospital in the town and later to another hospital in Nandyal town, where all efforts by the doctors to revive him proved futile.
Dr Harnath, who attended Bhuma, told Deccan Chronicle, that “it was a massive heart attack. We tried for one-and-half-hours to resuscitate but in vain”.
The 53-year-old entered politics after his father was murdered in 1987, in an ongoing faction war. His brother had also died in 1991 due to a heart attack, following which he was elected as an MLA from Allagadda.
In fact, it was Reddy who was the TDP's choice against former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, during the 1996 elections, for the Nandyal constituency.
Though Rao won that election with a margin of 98,000 votes, he retained his Berhampur seat in Orissa.
In 2008, the politician, along with his wife, quit the TDP after several stints as a legislator, and backed actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi's Praja Rajyam Party.
Bhuma and his wife quit the PRP when it merged with the Congress, and joined the YSRCP, as they shared a long relationship with former Andhra CM YS Rajasekhara Reddy.
His wife, Shoba Reddy, died in an accident in 2014.
The MLA defected back to the TDP in February last year.
In deep anguish & shock over the demise of TDP family member Bhuma Nagi Reddy garu. My deepest condolences. We will stand by his family.
— N Chandrababu Naidu (@ncbn) March 12, 2017
Shocked and saddened over the death of senior party member Bhuma Nagi Reddy garu. May his soul rest in peace.
— Lokesh Nara (@naralokesh) March 12, 2017