Ex-AP Speaker Kodela Attempts Suicide, Dies Of Stroke

Senior TDP leader and former Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker Dr Kodela Siva Prasada Rao, 72, allegedly attempted suicide at his home in Banjara Hills on Monday.

Upon discovering the attempt, his family members immediately rushed him to the Basavatarakam Indo-American Cancer Hospital in Banjara Hills. The hospital authorities are said to have tried their best to save him, but Kodela reportedly died of cardiac arrest after his failed suicide attempt.

He is survived by two sons and a daughter.

The Banjara Hills police visited the residence of Kodela in Banjara Hills and reportedly registered a case of suicide.

The former Speaker's body has been sent to the Osmania Hospital for post-mortem amid tight security.

Kodela reportedly fell sick last week and was admitted to his own hospital in Guntur for a heart ailment. After treatment, he had come back to Hyderabad.

Born in 1947 in a farmer's family, Kodela completed his primary education in Siripuram village in Guntur district. He studied a pre-university course at Loyola College, Vijayawada, and then graduated with an MBBS from Guntur Medical College, and later got an MS (General Surgery) degree from the Banaras Hindu University.

A doctor by profession until then, Kodela joined the Telugu Desam Party when it was founded by N T Rama Rao in 1983. A six-time MLA, he had won from Narsaraopet five times and from Sattenapalli in 2014. He served as a minister in multiple TDP governments, holding the Home, Health, Major Irrigation, Panchayati Raj and Civil Supplies portfolios at various times, before finally becoming the Speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly in 2014 after the bifurcation of the State.

He lost to the YSR Congress Party's Ambati Rambabu in the 2019 elections.

Kodela had been under severe stress after a series of cases were filed against his family members and him by the Y S Jaganmohan Reddy government, including the infamous Assembly furniture theft case which had reportedly been haunting him.