Nandyal MLA Bhuma Nagi Reddy Dies Of Stroke

A senior politician from the faction-ridden Rayalaseema region, Bhuma Nagi Reddy, the sitting MLA of the Nandyal Assembly constituency in the Kurnool district, died suddenly after a massive heart attack on Sunday morning.

The 53-year-old politician is survived by two daughters and a son, including daughter Akhila Priya, also an MLA elected from her late mother Shobha Nagi Reddy's constituency Allagadda.

Both Bhuma Nagi Reddy and daughter Akhila Priya had switched their loyalties from the YSR Congress Party to the Telugu Desam Party in February last year.

Reddy suffered the heart attack this morning and was rushed to a hospital. Doctors tried their best to revive him right from when he was being shifted from the ambulance to the hospital. However, they could not succeed, and the death was confirmed at noon.

Upon hearing the tragic news, his supporters and well-wishers of the family rushed to the hospital and lamented the loss of the leader.

The last rites will take place in Allagadda on Monday, said Bhuma Reddy's brother-in-law S V Mohan Reddy.

Born on January 8, 1964, Bhuma Nagi Reddy was for the first time elected to the then undivided Andhra Pradesh Assembly in a by-election in 1992 following the sudden death of his brother Bhuma Sekhar Reddy, the sitting MLA from the Allagadda constituency.

He came into the limelight in 1996 when he was chosen as as the TDP nominee to contest against then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao from the Nandyal Lok Sabha constituency. Though he lost the election by a narrow margin, he got elected again from the same constituency with a thumping majority after Rao resigned to retain his Berhampur seat. Reddy thus entered the 11th Lok Sabha, and served two more terms - in the 12th and 13th Lok Sabhas.

Reddy suffered a setback when he was defeated as the TDP candidate for the Allagadda Assembly seat by Congress nominee Gangula Pratap Reddy in the 2004 elections. Both Reddy and his wife Shobha Nagi Reddy quit the Telugu Desam Party and joined actor Chiranjeevi's newly floated political outfit Praja Rajyam Party in 2008. However, when Chiranjeevi decided to merge Praja Rajyam Party with the Congress, the Bhuma couple strongly opposed the move, and joined hands with Y S Jaganmohan Reddy's YSR Congress Party.

Shobha Nagi Reddy died just before the 2014 elections in a road accident. Nagi Reddy got elected to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly on the YSR Congress Party ticket from Nandyal in the same year, while his daughter got elected to her late mother's seat Allagadda.

However, with the bifurcation of the united AP and amidst a change of the political scenario, both father and daughter switched their loyalties to the TDP in February 2016. In fact, AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is reported to have offered Nagi Reddy a cabinet post if he defected from the YSRCP, and his induction into the Naidu cabinet was expected anytime now. Political circles are now wondering if Akhila Priya will be inducted in the cabinet instead.

Upon hearing the news, Chandrababu Naidu expressed his profound shock, and said that the TDP had lost a very eminent and powerful leader from Rayalaseema. He said that he would do his best to take care of Reddy's family.

It is pertinent to note here that Deputy Chief Minister K E Krishnamurthy, who belongs to Kurnool district, had opposed the entry of Bhuma Nagi Reddy into the TDP - Reddy and he are known for their bitter rivalry in Rayalaseema's politics.

Reddy's wife's untimely death and the stagnation of his political career had reportedly led Bhuma into a depression.