Andhra Pradesh Member of Legislative Council (MLC) Challa Ramakrishna Reddy, a leader of the ruling YSRCP, succumbed to COVID-19 on Friday. The 72-year-old politician was on a ventilator in a private hospital in Hyderabad. Reddy is said to have tested positive for the coronavirus, following a recent Assembly session in the first week of December, 2020. He was later admitted to the hospital but doctors said that his situation deteriorated. Arrangements are underway to conduct a funeral at Reddy's native place.
Born on August 27, 1948 into an agricultural family in Uppalapadu of Avuku (Owk) mandal in Kurnool district, Reddy was a seasoned politician with decades of active political life in the district as an MLA. He is survived by his wife Sridevi, two sons and two daughters.
Reddy became MLA thrice on a Congress ticket — the first time in 1983 from Panyam Assembly constituency. He lost in the 1989 Assembly elections and 1991 Lok Sabha elections, but won twice consecutively in 1999 and 2004, and served as Koilkuntla MLA. Observers said that Reddy’s electoral political career came to an end in 2009, with the reorganisation of the Koilkuntla Assembly constituency.
In 2014, he joined the TDP and worked as the State Civil Supplies Corporation Chairman. Ahead of the 2019 Assembly elections, he joined the YSRCP, and later became an MLC. According to a report in The Hindu, Reddy is a poet and has published his two collections of poems — Naradhudu and Shem Shem.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy expressed his condolences and deep grief over the demise of the MLC. In a statement, the Chief Minister's Office said, "Recalling his active role in Kurnool politics, the Chief Minister conveyed his heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family members."
Several contemporaries and political opponents of Reddy expressed their condolences while recalling his role in Kurnool politics. Earlier in September, YSRCP's Tirupati Member of Parliament (MP) Balli Durga Prasad Rao, succumbed to a cardiac arrest, while undergoing treatment for COVID-19 at a private hospital in Chennai.