BRS Leader Jitta Balakrishna Reddy Passes Away

Hyderabad: BRS party State leader and separate Telangana State activist Jitta Balakrishna Reddy on Friday passed away at the age of 52 here. He was suffering from a brain infection and was undergoing treatment at Yashoda Hospital in Secunderabad for some time now. He breathed his last in the morning as his condition worsened. His body was shifted to Bhuvanagiri by his family members. The last rites of Reddy will be performed at his farmhouse on Magampally Road on the outskirts of the town.

Jitta Balakrishna Reddy is known as separate Telangana activist. After the formation of the BRS party, Jitta served as the State president of the party's affiliated youth wing. However, during the 2009 assembly elections, he did not get a ticket and walked out of the party, contested as an independent and lost the elections. He also contested the 2014 and 2018 elections but lost. In 2009, he covered the Congress party’s scarf in the presence of the then Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy. After the sudden death of YSR, he came out of the Congress party. He joined the YSRCP later. However, when YS Jagan took an anti-Telangana policy in the Lok Sabha, he came out of the party, formed his own Yuva Telangana Party and took up programmes. Later, he contested in MLC elections held for Nalgonda-Warangal-Khammam graduates constituency on behalf of his party.

The party was merged with the BJP in the presence of senior BJP leaders in Delhi later. Jitta was suspended from the BJP after the change of president in the State. He joined the Congress in the presence of Bhuvanagiri MP Komatireddy Venkatreddy. However, a month later, he joined the BRS party on October 20 last year. After 14 years, he returned to his home turf.