Veteran Telangana politician and former Rajya Sabha member Dharmapuri Srinivas died of prolonged illness at his residence in Hyderabad in the early hours of Saturday.
He was 76 years. He is survived by two sons. His elder son Sanjay is ex-Mayor of Nizamabad. His younger son Dharmapuri Arvind is a Member of Parliament of Nizamabad from Bharatiya Janata Party.
Arvind tweeted about his father’s demise at 3.30 am.
“My father Srinivas, fondly called Seenanna, who would come to the rescue of people in all their troubles, is no more. I will miss you daddy! He is my father, my mentor and teacher. He taught me how to fight and how not to fear. He told me to love people and live for people. Daddy, you will always be with me and within me,” Arvind tweeted.
A three-time MLA from Nizamabad (rural) in 1989, 1999 and 2004, Srinivas served for a long time in the Congress party.
He was a two-time president of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee and played a key role in bringing the party to power in 2004 and 2009.
Popularly known as DS, he served as Minister for Higher Education and Intermediate Education in Rajashekhar Reddy's government in 2009. Srinivas also worked with different portfolios in the State Cabinet of Andhra Pradesh.
DS also played a big role in the Congress party taking up the Telangana cause. He was instrumental in the alliance between the Congress and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (then TRS) in 2004.
After the bifurcation of the combined state, DS resigned from the Congress and joined the BRS on July 2, 2015.
He was subsequently made Rajya Sabha member, but after 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he was sidelined in the party on the ground that he had supported his son Arvind from BJP in the elections.
Since then, he had not been active in the party. After the completion of his Rajya Sabha term in 2022, he withdrew from active politics due to his ill health.
He made an attempt to come back to the Congress but did not succeed.