Telangana Congress leader D Srinivas, former MP, dies at 76: Veteran Congressman from Telangana and former MP for the Rajya Sabha, Dharmapuri Srinivas, passed away at home in the early hours of Saturday morning from a protracted illness, according to his family.
At the age of 76, Srinivas left behind two sons. His younger son Arvind Dharmapuri is currently a Nizamabad MP for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and his elder son Dharmapuri Sanjay is a Congress leader and a former mayor of Nizamabad.
“I have lost my father, Srinivas, who we all loved and called Seenanna. You will be missed, Daddy! He serves as my parent, teacher, and mentor. I learned from him how to fight and how to overcome fear. He advised me to live for and love people. Daddy, you’ll always be inside of me and with me, Arvind wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday at 3:30 in the morning.
Veteran Congressman Srinivas served as an MLA from rural Nizamabad three times, in 1989, 1999, and 2004. In addition, he served as president of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee twice, and he was a major factor in the party’s victories in 2004 and 2009.
Often referred to as “DS,” Srinivas held the positions of minister of information and public relations, rural development, and higher education in the Congress-led federal government from 1989 to 1994. From 2004 to 2009, he led the Y S Rajasekhara Reddy administration in charge of intermediate and higher education.
Srinivas was also instrumental in the Congress party’s decision to champion the Telangana cause. In 2004, he played a key role in the Congress and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) (formerly Telangana Rashtra Samithi) forming an alliance.
On July 2, 2015, Srinivas left the Congress and joined the BRS following the split of the unified state. After that, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha, but the party excluded him from the Lok Sabha in 2019 under the guise of supporting his son Arvind from Nizamabad, who had run against the daughter of BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao, Kalvakuntla Kavitha.
He rejoined the Congress when his tenure in the Rajya Sabha ended in 2022, but he did not take an active part in politics and withdrew because of his poor health.
Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, the head of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee, along with his cabinet colleagues expressed sorrow at Srinivas’s death and offered their sympathies to the bereaved family.
