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.
Earlier in 2002, he had been made Deputy Speaker of the combined A.P. Assembly after K. Chandrasekhar Rao quit the post in 2001 to float TRS for statehood to Telangana. After joining TRS, Harishwar Reddy lost the Assembly election from Parigi in 2014 at the hands of Congress rival T.Ram Mohan Reddy.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, in his condolence message, termed Harishwar Reddy as a leader with a mass following in the area and recollected his association with the late leader. He instructed Chief Secretary A. Santhi Kumari to conduct his last rites with official honours.
Working president of BRS and Minister K.T. Rama Rao, along with other Ministers T. Harish Rao, G. Jagadish Reddy and V. Srinivas Goud, legislators and former legislators K. Yadaiah, M. Kishan Reddy and T. Krishna Reddy, visited Parigi to pay homage to the departed leader and consoled the bereaved family, including MLA Mr. Mahesh Reddy.
Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, Legislative Council chairman Gutta Sukender Reddy, deputy chairman Banda Prakash, Ministers S. Niranjan Reddy, V. Prashanth Reddy, A. Indrakaran Reddy, Satyavathi Rathod, MPs G. Ranjith Reddy and Vaddiraju Ravindra, former chairman of Narmul Dairy G. Jitender Reddy and several others condoled the death.
