Five-time MLA from Parigi and former Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly in combined Andhra Pradesh Koppula Harishwar Reddy, 78, who died of a massive heart attack on Friday night, was cremated with official honours in Parigi town on Saturday. He is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.
Harishwar Reddy suffered a heart attack at his residence in Parigi after 10 p.m. on Friday and was rushed to the Government Hospital there, where he died under treatment. His elder son K.Mahesh Reddy is the sitting MLA from Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and has been retained by the party for the coming Assembly elections.
Starting his public life as a ward member of Parigi Gram Panchayat in the early 1970s, Harishwar Reddy went on to become upa-sarpanch, sarpanch (1978) and later as panchayat samithi chairman. He was elected to the Assembly in combined A.P. in 1985, 1994, 1999, 2004 and 2009 on Telugu Desam Party (TDP) ticket and switched over to TRS (now BRS) during the thick of the movement for Telangana statehood in 2012.
