Secunderabad MP and senior BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya on Saturday demanded that the Telangana government officially observe the birth centenary celebrations of late Konda Lakshman Bapuji.
In a letter to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, Dattatreya said that Bapuji had waged an unrelenting struggle for the realisation of statehood for Telangana since 1952.
Bapuji had resigned from the State Cabinet and the Congress in 1969, and never accepted any position of power till his death, Dattatreya said.
"A great freedom fighter during the dark days of the Nizam, late Bapuji languished in jail and lived underground for a long time. He always dreamt of uplifting the poor and the subaltern sections of the society. He stood like a rock by the side of the SCs, STs, OBCs and minorities during their distress. To be precise, he was a matchless and towering personality in Telangana," Dattatreya said.
The BJP leader also demanded that a befitting memorial be erected to Bapuji at a prominent square in Hyderabad, as also a statue on Tank Bund. He also suggested that a university be named after Bapuji. (INN)