'Kodela went into depression, felt let down by family and TDP': YSRCP holds opposition responsible for former Assembly speaker's suicide

Amaravati: The ruling YSR Congress on Tuesday held Kodela Siva Prasada Rao’s own family and also the Telugu Desam Party responsible for the suicide of the former Assembly speaker. Stating that mystery shrouded the veteran TDP leaders death, the YSRC said it had no objection if the case was handed over to the CBI for investigation. [caption id=“attachment_7347781” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Former Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kodela Siva Prasad Rao. ANI[/caption] Andhra Pradesh civil supplies minister Kodali Sri Venkateswara Rao, Chief Whip G Srikanth Reddy and YSRC spokesman Ambati Rambabu addressed press conferences separately and strongly rebutted TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu’s charge that the Jagan Mohan Reddy government was responsible for the former Speakers suicide. Referring to Naidu’s demand for a CBI probe, the YSRC leaders said they had no objection to it, but it was for the Telangana government to take a call since the incident occurred in Hyderabad. “Kodela apparently went into a depression as he felt let down by his own family and also the TDP, which he considered his family. He was a ferocious leader who braved many upheavals in his long political career. He was not a timid leader to take his own life,” the YSRC leaders noted. Rambabu alleged that Kodela first attempted suicide on 23 August, but they tried to cover it up as “chest pain”. “Chandrababu did not even care to call on Kodela despite the latter being in hospital just 50 meters away from the TDP office in Guntur. “Chandrababu disowned Kodela and left him in mental agony. The TDP cadre should understand this,” Rambabu, who defeated the former Speaker in the 2019 election, pointed out. Kodela was no stranger to police cases, as he faced a number of them in his long political career. “He was never jolted even when faced with a CBI probe (into the bomb explosion in his residence in 1999),” the YSRC leader recalled. Though about 19 cases were filed against Kodela and his kin in the last couple of months, the complainants belonged to the TDP in a majority of the cases. “How could Chandrababu say Kodela was harassed when he was not called to the police station even once for enquiry? In fact, Kodela obtained stay on the cases,” he said. Maintaining that there was ‘some mystery’ behind the 72-year-old leader’s extreme action, the YSRC legislator said a thorough probe was needed to establish the facts.