Ex-Union Minister S Jaipal Reddy Dead

Senior Congress leader and former union minister Sudini Jaipal Reddy passed away in the early hours, at around 1.30 am, in Hyderabad today.

He was 77, and is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.

His mortal remains have been shifted to his Jubilee Hills residence.

The former union minister had been admitted to the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology in Gachibowli with high fever and pneumonia a few days back, and had been under treatment.

Reddy hailed from Madugula village in undivided Mahabubnagar district and joined politics as a student leader of Osmania University. He became a Congress MLA in the 1960s, and was a four-time MLA from Kalwakurthy from 1969 to 1984. He was the Janata Party general secretary from 1985 to 1988, and was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1984 from Mahabubnagar. He was elected to the Lok Sabha four times and the Rajya Sabha twice, and was the Leader Of Opposition in the Upper House in 1991-1992.

The departed leader briefly quit the Congress as a protest against the infamous Emergency imposed by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and joined the Janata Party in 1977, and came back to the Congress in 1999 after winning the Miryalaguda Lok Sabha seat. He was also the Chevella MP during 2009-14.

Reddy worked as the union minister for Information and Broadcasting, for Urban Development, for Petroleum and Natural Gas, and finally for Science & Technology. He worked as a union minister in the Federal Front government earlier and also in the Congress-led UPA I and UPA II regimes.

Reddy was noted for his oratorial skills, and his speeches in the undivided Andhra Pradesh Assembly would be heard with rapt attention by all the members.

A pall of gloom engulfed the Congress headquarters in Telangana following Reddy's death. Top leaders from across India including PM Narendra Modi and President Ram Nath Kovind condoled the death.