Veteran Congress leader D Srinivas passes away at 76
Veteran Congress leader from Telangana and a former Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) Dharmapuri Srinivas, died on Saturday morning at his home after a protracted illness, according to his family.
Srinivas was 76 and is survived by two sons. His elder son, Dharmapuri Sanjay, is a Congress leader and former mayor of Nizamabad, while his younger son, Arvind Dharmapuri, is a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Nizamabad.
“My father Srinivas, fondly called Seenanna is no more. I will miss you, daddy! He is my father, my mentor and teacher. He taught me how to fight and how not to fear. He told me to love people and live for people. Daddy, you will always be with me and within me,” a post from Arvind on Facebook at 3.30am on Saturday read.
Who was Dharmapuri Srinivas?
Srinivas, a seasoned Congress leader, was elected to the Nizamabad (rural) Legislative Assembly three times: in 1989, 1999, and 2004. He was also the president of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee twice, and he was instrumental in the party’s election victories in 2004 and 2009.
Srinivas, popularly known as DS, was minister for rural development, information, and public relations in the Congress-led central government from 1989 to 1994, and then higher education and intermediate education in the Y S Rajasekhara Reddy government from 2004 to 2009.
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Srinivas was also instrumental in the Congress party’s adoption of the Telangana cause. In 2004, he played a key role in the Congress-Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) (then Telangana Rashtra Samithi) coalition.
Srinivas resigned from the Congress and joined the BRS on July 2, 2015, following the state’s bifurcation. He was later elected to the Rajya Sabha, but was marginalized by the party during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on the grounds that he supported his son Arvind from Nizamabad over BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha.
