Veteran Congress leader and vice president of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee vice president Nandi Yellaiah died of Covid-19 at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences on Saturday.
He was 78. He is survived by his two sons and two daughters.
Yellaiah was admitted to NIMS on July 29, complaining of pneumonia and other symptoms and he tested positive later. After undergoing treatment for 10 days, he breathed his last at 10.30 am.
Considered to be one of the prominent Dalit leaders of the Congress party, Nandi Yellaiah began his political career as a follower of former chief minister Dr Marri Channa Reddy and took part in the 1969 Telangana movement.
He was elected as a municipal councillor for Hyderabad Municipal Corporation during that period.
Yellaiah got elected to Lok Sabha for six times – five times from Siddipet since 1980 and from Nagarkurnool in 2014, when he defeated Manda Jagannatham of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi.
He was also nominated to Rajya Sabha twice and also worked as a member of state legislative council for some time. He was never defeated in the elections which he had contested. He did not contest the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.
Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, PCC chief Uttam Kumar Reddy and several other Congress leaders mourned the death of Nandi Yellaiah.
