Communist Party of India veteran and former two-term MP from AP, Mr Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy, 70, was on Saturday named the party’s new general secretary, replacing A.B. Bardhan, 87, at the party’s 21st congress here.
Mr Reddy, who had been the CPI deputy general secretary since 2007, was unanimously elected to the top post, becoming the second Telugu leader at the CPI’s helm in 25 years after Chandra Rajeswara Rao.
The party turned down a proposal for an amendment in its Constitution to create the post of a chairman or president reportedly to honour Bardhan by making him occupy it. The deputy general secretary’s post was left vacant.
Mr Reddy’s wife, Ms B.V. Vijayalakshmi, herself a CPI national council member, said: “He (Mr Reddy) wants to widen and deepen the party’s roots in the country”.
The 21st congress, organised in Patna, called for introduction of the Universal Rationing System in the country and the states’ right to determine BPL and APL benchmarks.
Suravaram, an ardent social worker
The CPI’s newly-elected national general secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy was born on March 25, 1942. He was elected twice to the Lok Sabha from Nalgonda. He was also former chairman of the Parliamentary Stand-ing Committee on Labour.
Married to Dr Vijayalakshmi, the couple has two sons. He did his schooling at the Municipal High School, Kurnool, and B.A. in history, economics and politics from Osmania College, Kurnool. He has a law degree from Osmania University College of Law.
Mr Reddy has been an ardent social worker through the CPI from his student days. His father S. Venkatrami Reddy was a freedom fighter and was involved in the Telangana armed struggle.