Congress leader, ex-minister Dharampuri Srinivas passes away

Hyderabad, June 29 (IANS) Senior Congress leader and former Rajya Sabha member Dharampuri Srinivas passed away here early Saturday after prolonged illness. Srinivas, 76, who headed the Congress and served as a Minister in undivided Andhra Pradesh, breathed his last at his residence around 3 a.m., family sources said.The senior leader was not keeping good health for the last couple of years after suffering a brain stroke.Popularly known as DS, he is survived by his wife and two sons. His younger son Dharampuri Arvind is BJP MP from Nizamabad while elder son Dharampuri Sanjay had served as Mayor of Nizamabad.Srinivas was leading the Congress in undivided Andhra Pradesh when it returned to power in 2004.He twice headed Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee and also served as a Minister in Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s Cabinet.Srinivas had switched loyalties to Talangana Rashtra Samithi (now Bharat Rashtra Samithi) after it formed the first government in the newly carved out Telangana state in 2014. He was rewarded with the post of special advisor to the government and later made him a Rajya Sabha member in 2016.However, on the eve of 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the senior leader from Nizamabad faced allegations of anti-party activities.It was alleged that he promoted his son Arvind who joined the BJP. Since then, Srinivas was staying away from active