Former chief minister Nedurumalli Janardhan Reddy passed away in the early hours on Friday, while undergoing treatment at the Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) here. He was 80 and is survived by wife Rajyalakshmi and four sons Ram Kumar, Ashok Kumar, Goutham Kumar and Bharath Kumar.
Reddy had been undergoing treatment for liver-related problems and the end came at 5.30 a.m. His body was shifted to his residence at Somajiguda and later kept at Indira Bhavan, now headquarters of APCC for leaders to pay their last respect for an hour from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Later the body was taken to his native village Vakadu in Nellore district, where the last rites would be performed on Saturday.
Janardhan Reddy, a sitting Rajya Sabha member from Andhra Pradesh, served as chief minister from December 1990 to October 1992. Before that he was a minister in the Cabinets of Jalagam Vengal Rao, T Anjaiah, B Venkatram, K Vijayabhaskara Reddy and Marri Channa Reddy. He held various portfolios including revenue, industries, forest, agriculture, power and higher education.
Born on February 20, 1935 in Vakadu, Janardhan Reddy was married to Rajyalakshmi in 1962. He was a teacher by profession, before he entered politics in 1972.
He was an MLC between 1978-84 and was elected as MLA from Venkatagiri in 1989. After Marri Chenna Reddy quit as chief minister in 1990, following largescale communal violence, he become the chief minister.
However, he continued for only two years and was forced to step down following allegations of irregularities in sanction of new private engineering colleges.
He contested from Bapatla LS constituency in 1998 and later from Narasaraopet in 1999 and again from Visakhapatnam in 2004. In 2009, he was made Rajya Sabha member and was re-elected in 2010. He continued to be member of the Upper House till his death.
Reddy took a tough stand against Naxalites and had survived an attack on his life by the extremists in 2007.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi, AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh and other leaders condoled the demise of Janardhan Reddy.
Several Congress leaders including APCC chief N Raghveera Reddy, TPCC chief Ponnala Laskhmaiah, K Chiranjeevi, Anam Ramnarayan Reddy, V Vasanth Kumar, CPI state secretary K Narayana, BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu, Bandaru Dattatreya, TDP leaders Gali Muddukrishnma Naidu, Bojjala Gopalakrishna Reddy visited his residence and paid their last respects.
Govenor ESL Narasimhan, Tamil Nadu governor K Rosaiah, Congress senior leader T Subbirami Reddy and others also mourned Janardhan Reddy.