Ex-MLA Devineni Nehru Passes Away!

Former Andhra Pradesh Minister, TDP leader and ex-MLA Devineni Nehru passed away of a cardiac arrest today at the age of 65. The key figure in Vijayawada politics suffered cardiac arrest at his house in Hyderabad.

Nehru, whose real name is Devineni Rajashekar, suffered from kidney ailments and was discharged from a hospital in Hyderabad a few days ago. His body has been shifted to Vijayawada where the last rites will be performed tomorrow. Having served as a minister during the NTR regime, he was a close aide of NTR but left the party to join congress after NTR’s death.

However, the political leader recently made his re-entry into TDP and was planning on making his son Avinash his political successor. Born on 22 June 1954, Devineni Nehru won as MLA five times and served in the NTR cabinet between 1994 and 1996. Nehru’s family has had a long-running feud with political rival Vangaveeti Ranga.

Ranga was a leader of the Congress party and was murdered in 1988 when he was on a hunger strike. His death had sparkled unprecedented violence in Vijayawada and other parts of the Krishna district. More than 40 people were killed and billions of rupees lost in the violence that ensued. The violence only abated after NTR made Nehru surrender. In 2002, the court had acquitted all the 33 accused, including Nehru, in Ranga’s murder case. Telugu movie ‘Vangaveeti’ was based on the feud between the two rivals.

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu mourned the loss of Devineni Nehru and deemed it a personal loss to him and the party.

Tweeting about the same, RGV tweeted – “Shocked to hear about Devineni Nehru Garu’s death .A symbol of strength with strong convictions ..Remembering my wonderful memories with him.”