VMRDA Chairman Dronamraju Srinivasa Rao passes away

Senior politician and VMRDA Chairman Dronamraju Srinivasa Rao passed away in Vizag on Sunday evening. He was aged 59.

The ex-MLA was admitted to a private hospital last month after testing positive for COVID-19. While Mr Rao later recovered from the infection, he remained in the hospital as his health condition deteriorated from other complications.

Several politicians and YSRCP leaders expressed grief over the demise of Dronamraju Srinivasa Rao. Expressing sorrow, YSRCP senior leader Vijayasai Reddy said, “I have no words to express my grief and sorrow over the sudden demise of Sri Dronamraju Srinivas garu.its a great loss to the party and people of North Andhra. I convey my condolences to the bereaved family members and pray to God to give them courage to face these testing times.”

YSRCP leaders, including Tourism Minister Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao, MLAs Adeep Raj, Amarnath Gudivada, and others observed mourning at the party office in Vizag. The mortal remains of Dronamraju Srinivasa Rao will be laid to rest on Monday.

Dronamraju Srinivasa Rao was elected to the Assembly twice from the Visakhapatnam South constituency. He had even served as the Government Whip in the Congress government in the combined Andhra Pradesh. In 2019, he had quit Congress to join the YSRCP before the polls. He then contested to the Assembly from the city’s South constituency but lost to Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar. In July last year, he had taken charge as the first Chairman of the Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (VMRDA). Srinivasa Rao is the son of Dronamraju Satyanarayana who had helmed the Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (VUDA) in 1978.