Hyderabad: Congress veteran and former Union minister Gaddam Venkataswamy, 85, died on Monday night after prolonged illness due to multi-organ failure.
Popularly known as Kaka, Venkataswamy, the Dalit leader from Chennur in Adilabad won Pedapalli Lok Sabha for a record seven times from the Congress.
He is survived by two sons G. Vinod, a former minister in YSR’s Cabinet regime, G. Vivek, Pedapalli MP and three daughters. He had been elected to Lok Sabha in 1967 and then in 1971 he became the Union deputy minister for labour in Indira Gandhi’s Cabinet.
He was a minister of state for rural development and textiles in the Cabinet of P.V. Narasimha Rao.He was a staunch supporter of Telangana State.
A few years ago, when he recovered from a similar illness, he said that God had saved him so that he could see a separate Telangana.
Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan, Chief Ministers of Telangana State and AP, K. Chandrasekhar Rao and N. Chandrababu Naidu, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh condoled his death. The funeral will be held on Tuesday at the Panjagutta burial ground.
