April 3, 2012
Staff Reporter
Hyderabad: Former MLA of Zindabad, Bacchabuddi (90) died after a brief illness in a hospital here on Sunday. Party leaders and supporters thronged the hospital on hearing the news and blocked the surrounding roads for 2 hrs before the police intervened. His son Bakkaabuddi, MP of Chippaluru, speaking to the media said that it would be difficult for anyone to fill the shoes of his visionary father. Party leaders, his friends and followers expressed condolences to the bereaved family. Party leaders remembered how Bacchabuddi, the first MLA to the Zindabad constituency after its formation in 1978 used to garner support cutting across party lines. His initiatives of getting a statue of a freedom fighter constructed in the Zindabad constituency was welcomed by all. Similar was the response, when he decided to rename all the schools of the constituency after the first Governor of the country. He never acted on anything that made anyone protest. He is survived by his wife and two sons.
Personal and career highlights:
- Bacchabuddi got the construction of the 5000 MW Vidyutsagar dam stopped in 1978 to save 20 acres of land belonging to the downtrodden from being drowned.
- He was the chief accused in the Rs.6,50,000 crore Cowdung scam.
- He was also embroiled in the Cricket scam of the 90s.
- He was never convicted in any of the 316 pending criminal cases in which he was prime accused, for lack of evidence.
- Allegations of money distribution during elections against him were never conclusively proved.
- He was the founder of the 'Punyapurusha' party, which was set up on the plank of subsidised living, which later merged with the Congress.
- He introduced the free petrol scheme in 1987, which still runs in the state.
- He was the first politician from the state to have been invited by the Oxford University to speak on 'How to subsidise during good times and suffer during bad times'
- 30 out of the 45 statues in the Zindabad constituency were dedicated to him.
- His son Bakkaabuddi, became the youngest MLA ever in the constituency in 1992 and later went on to become the MP of Chippaluru.
- Recently, he was in the news for his vocal support of 60% caste based reservation in posts of higher learning and research.
