Senior Congress Leader Dharampuri Srinivas Passes Away at 76
Hyderabad: Senior Congress leader and former Rajya Sabha member Dharampuri Srinivas passed away early Saturday at the age of 76 after a prolonged illness. He breathed his last at his residence around 3 a.m., according to family sources.
Srinivas, affectionately known as DS, led the Congress and served as a Minister in undivided Andhra Pradesh. He had been in poor health for the past few years following a brain stroke. He is survived by his wife and two sons; his younger son, Dharampuri Arvind, is a BJP MP from Nizamabad, while his elder son, Dharampuri Sanjay, is a former Mayor of Nizamabad.
Srinivas played a pivotal role in the Congress’s return to power in undivided Andhra Pradesh in 2004. He led the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee twice and served as a Minister in Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s Cabinet.
After the formation of the newly carved Telangana state in 2014, Srinivas switched allegiance to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now Bharat Rashtra Samithi) and was appointed as a special advisor to the government. He was later made a Rajya Sabha member in 2016. However, ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he faced allegations of anti-party activities, notably for promoting his son Arvind, who had joined the BJP. Following these allegations, Srinivas distanced himself from active politics.
On March 26, 2023, Srinivas, accompanied by his son Sanjay, re-joined the Congress, arriving at the party office in a wheelchair. He rejoined in the presence of then Telangana Congress in-charge Manikrao Thakare and state Congress Chief A. Revanth Reddy. However, the following day, a statement was released on Srinivas’s behalf, denying that he had rejoined the Congress, stating that he had merely accompanied his son to the Congress office.
Srinivas’s political career began in 1989 when he joined the Congress and was elected to the Assembly from Nizamabad Urban constituency, subsequently becoming a Minister. He was re-elected as an MLA in 1999 and 2004. He served as Minister for Rural Development and Information and Public Relations from 1989 to 1994 and as Minister for Higher Education and Urban Land Ceiling from 2004 to 2008.
