CPI Veteran Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy Passes Away

Senior Communist leader and former CPI General Secretary, Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy, passed away in Hyderabad on Friday night at the age of 84. He had been suffering from respiratory problems for some time and was under treatment in a private hospital at Gachibowli, where he breathed his last at 10.20 PM.

Born on March 25, 1942, in Kondravupalli village of Mahbubnagar district, Sudhakar Reddy came from a family of social and cultural activists. Inspired by his father’s freedom struggle and his uncle’s reformist work, he entered student politics at a young age. During his school days, he even led a protest demanding basic facilities like blackboards and chalk in classrooms.

He rose step by step in the Communist movement, starting as a student leader in AISF and later serving as its national general secretary. One of his notable contributions was leading the campaign for reducing the voting age from 21 to 18, which later became law.

Reddy was elected to the Lok Sabha twice from Nalgonda, in 1998 and 2004, and worked extensively on addressing the fluoride crisis in the district. He also served as CPI’s state secretary and later became the national general secretary in 2012, continuing until 2019.

Despite his age and health issues, he remained active in party programs till the end. Leaders across parties, including Telangana CM Revanth Reddy and BRS chief KCR, paid tributes, describing his death as a great loss to Telangana and Indian politics.