HYDERABAD: Responding to the request of CPI MLA Kunamneni Sambasiva Rao, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said that the state government was inclined to rename Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University after Suravaram Pratap Reddy, a freedom fighter in the Nizam-ruled Hyderabad state.
Speaking in the Assembly during a discussion on the Bill to change the acronyms of state laws and related matters, the chief minister said that Sambasiva Rao had written to him recalling the promise made by former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on renaming the university.
He appealed to all the parties in the Assembly to give their views on renaming the university.
The chief minister also recounted the contribution of Pratapa Reddy, a journalist, writer and poet, who ran the ‘Golconda Patrika’. He was also one of the poets who was critical of Nizam’s oppressive rule.
Notably, Potti Sreeramulu is revered as Amarajeevi (immortal being) by the people of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh for his struggle for formation of Andhra state. He undertook a hunger strike for 56 days and died in the process.
The proposal to drop Potti Sreeramulu’s name comes after the expiration of the clause in Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2014, that made Hyderabad the common capital of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for 10 years. The opposition BRS and CPI supported the chief minister’s proposal.