Noted industrialist and Congress senior leader Gokaraju Subba Raju, popularly known as Siris Raju, died at a private hospital in Hyderabad on Monday. He was 94 and is survived by two sons and two daughters.
According to family sources, Subba Raju was admitted to a private hospital three days ago as his health condition deteriorated.
The body will be brought to Vijayawada on Monday night and the last rites will be performed on Tuesday.
He got the name ‘Siris Raju’ because of his renowned pharma company ‘SIRIS Litd’.
Raju had the privilege of hosting Jawaharlal Nehru, the then prime minister of India, in Vijayawada, in 1959 on his factory premises.
He was the president of Vijayawada City Congress Committee from 1958-1968. Raju was nominated to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council and went on to become its first deputy chairman for a full term of six years from 1958-1964.
He worked as the Congress (I) corporator of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation from 1981-1986, and as the leader of the Opposition.
GS Raju, was born in a family of freedom-fighters in a small village in Andhra Pradesh. He took his M.S. degree from the University of California Medical Centre, San Francisco, U.S.A after obtaining the Bachelor of Science Degree from the Banaras Hindu University. He is also an awardee of the ‘Fellow of the American Council Pharmaceutical Education’.
He established several other industries in Andhra Pradesh, and he was the chairman of SIRIS Group of Industries and served as chairman of several associations.
He was the Chairman of Amaravati Seema Urban Development Authority, Vijayawada, during 1981-82.
Several Congress leaders, including ministers and industrialists, are likely to attend the funeral on Tuesday.