Former Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MP Sabbam Hari died Monday while receiving treatment for COVID-19 at a private hospital in the city. He is survived by two daughters and a son.
His son Sabbam Venkat told reporters that Hari took his last breath at 1:22 p.m. He tested negative for COVID-19, but died of a lung infection. The last rites would be performed on Tuesday at 9 a.m.
Hari was born on June 1, 1952 in Visakhapatnam. He completed his middle and high school education at Mrs. AVN College and did some business before joining Congress in the mid-1980s.
Hari was mayor of Visakhapatnam from 1995 to 2000 and was elected as a member of the 15th Lok Sabha from Anakapalle in 2009 with a congress ticket. He had distanced himself from active politics after the 2014 elections and had joined the TDP before the 2019 elections and had unsuccessfully contested the assembly elections from Bheemunipatnam with a TDP ticket.
Mr Venkat said his father wanted to take the push but was unable to do so due to election-related activities. Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu and TDP National President N. Chandrababu Naidu made periodic inquiries about his health.
Condolences pour in
Mr Venkat thanked everyone who stood by his family during the crisis and appealed to people not to attend the funeral in view of the pandemic.
Condolences were expressed after the news of his death. Himachal Pradesh Governor Bandaru Dattatreya expressed his shock and recalled the contributions made by the former mayor to the development of Vizag.
“Sabbam Hari had drawn my attention to several problems during my tenure as labor minister,” he said, condoling the bereaved.
Former trade union minister and congress chairman T. Subbarami Reddy recalled his three decades of working with the former mayor and expressed condolences. Former Andhra University Rector A. Prasanna Kumar recalled that at the request of the Center for Policy Studies (CPS), Sabbam Hari had willingly agreed to sanction 2,000 square meters of land in Dwaraka Nagar for the Visakhapatnam Public Library.
YSRCP MP V. Vijaya Sai Reddy also expressed grief over the death of Hari. FDNA General Secretary A. Aja Sarma has approved his death.