Congress MP P Govardhan Reddy dies in Kullu

Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member from Telangana Palvai Govardhan Reddy died today after suffering a cardiac arrest near Kullu in Himachal Pradesh.

He was 80.

Family sources said Reddy, who was accompanied by his wife, was to have attended a Parliamentary Committee meeting in Kullu when he suffered a cardiac arrest at the Bhuntar airport on the outskirts of the Himachal town.

He was rushed to a local hospital where he was declared brought dead.

He had taken an early morning flight to Kullu from Delhi. A five-time MLA in Andhra Pradesh before the bifurcation of the state, Reddy, elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2012, was a member of several committees.

He is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.

Reddy's body was brought from Kullu to Delhi. A large number of leaders -- among them Vice President M Hamid Ansari, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party vice president Rahul Gandhi -- paid homage to him at his Delhi residence.

His body was later taken to Hyderabad. The cremation will take place at his hometown, Idikuda, in Nalgonda district today. Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is in Astana, Kazakhstan, for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, condoled his death.