Veteran Congress leader and former Minister B. Sarojini Pulla Reddy passed away in the early hours of Sunday.
Sarojini Pulla Reddy was suffering from prolonged illness and she breathed her last at her residence at Bowenpally at 2.15 am. The last rites were performed at Bowenpally in the afternoon. Eighty five-year-old Sarojini Pulla Reddy entered active politics in mid-1960s after joining the Congress and getting elected as councillor of Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad.
She went on to become the Mayor of the city, the second woman to adorn the post in the country, before entering the Legislative Assembly from Malakpet constituency in 1967. After representing the constituency twice, she lost the election in 1978. She was nominated as the first chairperson of the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority in 1975. She held Ministerial portfolios of Municipal Administration, Health and Women and Child Welfare in the Cabinets of Bhavanam Venkatram, T. Anjaiah and Kotla Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy. Known for her close association with late Indira Gandhi and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, she was nominated to the Congress Working Committee in 2001.
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Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, Assembly Speaker Nadendla Manohar and other senior leaders paid tributes to the departed leader recalling her services to the party. Rajya Sabha member K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao said the Congress lost a good leader who strove for uplift of poor.