Andhra Pradesh - Anantapur   

Sureedu was quintessential `YSR' man

Staff Reporter

Their two families had always moved on close terms

ANANTAPUR: Kethireddy Suryapratap Reddy, better known as Sureedu among his followers and the general public in the area, had always maintained close association with Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy whichever party he was in.

A distant relationship with YSR and the geographical proximity of Thimmampalli village, the native place of Sureedu, with the Pulivendula constituency in Kadapa district have always kept the two families together. Sureedu was elected mandal parishad president of Yellanur in 1987. He contested from Dharmavaram as an independent in the 1994 Assembly elections and narrowly lost to G. Venkata Naidu of the TDP.

Chequered history

A change of guard in the State made him to switch political loyalties to the then ruling TDP in 1995 and turn a close associate of Paritala Ravindra, who was later killed. He, however, returned to the Congress just before the Assembly elections in 1999 and won the election from Dharmavaram by defeating G. Vijaykumar of the TDP.

He again joined the TDP in 2003 and was given party ticket to contest from Tadipatri against J.C. Diwakar Reddy in 2004. His followers were alleged to have hurled bombs on the procession of Congress activists when Mr. Diwakar Reddy was on way to file his nomination papers. Political passions have been high between the rival groups since then.

Sureedu, however, suffered from multiple health problems which forced him to keep away from active politics. A few of cases were registered against him and his brother during the Assembly elections and later.

Body shifted

Meanwhile, the body of Suryapratap Reddy was taken to his native village Thimmampalli in Yellanur mandal in the evening amid emotional scenes.

It would be kept in his house there till cremation likely to be held on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the town police station registered a case specifying "unidentified" persons as the killers, without even mentioning the number. During the post-mortem doctors were learnt to have found 54 cuts of hunting sickles, mostly on his face.

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