Hyderabad: Balli Durga Prasad Rao, YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) MP from the Tirupati Lok Sabha seat, passed away after suffering from a cardiac arrest on Wednesday. The parliamentarian was reportedly also infected with the novel corona virus (COVID-19).
Durga Prasad Rao, according to local media reports, was undergoing treatment at a hospital in Chennai, where he died after suffering from a massive stroke. The former MP hailed from Bhimavaram in Nellore district, and was first elected as an MLA from the Gudur seat in 1985.
He then went on to sin four more times, and had also served as a cabinet minister under former (erstwhile state) Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu (1996-98). However, after the bifurcation of AP and Telangana, he shifted sides to the YSRCP.
Durga Prasad Rao had contested on a YSRCP ticket in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from the Tirupati successfully. After his demise, AP chief minister and YSRCP supremo Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy offered his condolences.