Former Telangana MLA Edma Krishna Reddy Passes Away

Former MLA Edma Krishna Reddy, of Nagarkurnool district, breathed his last today at a corporate hospital.

He was 84.

He had been keeping unwell for some time now.

Reddy had contested for the Kalwakurthy Assembly seat thrice and won twice.

Reddy was born in a farmer's family in Kalwakurthy in 1947. He got into active politics by becoming a ward member and later a village Sarpanch. An activist, he went to jail during the emergency in 1977. The same streak saw him shoot to fame as Current Kistanna when he went on a hunger strike in 2003 demanding that the state government increase the capacity of the transformers and supply quality power. The strike became a sensation in the entire state, and the then CLP leader Y S Rajasekhar Reddy personally came to Kalwakurthy and offered lemon juice to him to end his strike.

Reddy's political career started turning high-profile when he won as the MPP of Kalwakurthy in 1986 as a TDP candidate. He later won the Kalwakurthy Assembly seat as an independent candidate in 1999, and joined the Congress. He won the same seat as the Congress candidate in 2014. He lost the Assembly elections in 2009, and also in 2014.

Reddy joined the TRS before the last Assembly elections. His son Edma Satyam soon became the Kalwakurthy Municipal Chairman.

Political leaders cutting across party affiliations expressed their condolences over the death of Reddy. CM K Chandrashekar Rao, Assembly Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, Council Chairman Gutha Sukhender Reddy, ministers T Harish Rao, Vemula Prashanth Reddy, Indrakaran Reddy and V Srinivas Goud, Telangana State Planning Board Vice-Chairman B Vinod Kumar and senior Congress leader K Jana Reddy among others expressed grief over the passing of the veteran politician.