BRS MLA from Hyderabad's Jubilee Hills, Maganti Gopinath passes away

HYDERABAD: BRS MLA from Jubilee Hills, Maganti Gopinath, passed away at a corporate hospital on Sunday morning. Gopinath, who suffered a massive heart attack on June 5, was undergoing treatment and breathed his last at 5.45 am. The three-time MLA from Jubilee Hills had been suffering from various health issues over the past year. The 62-year-old Gopinath, who was serving as the president of the Greater Hyderabad BRS wing and MLA of Jubilee Hills Assembly constituency, began his political journey with the Telugu Desam Party in 1983. He served as president of the TDP youth wing, Telugu Yuvatha, from 1985 to 1992 and also held the post of TDP Hyderabad district president. Gopinath worked as director of the then Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (HUDA) for two years, from 1987 to 1989. He was also a member of the Hyderabad District Consumer Forum. As an MLA, Gopinath won for the first time in 2014 on a TDP ticket and later joined the BRS. He went on to contest and win on a BRS ticket again in the 2018 and 2023 Assembly polls. In the 2023 election, he defeated former Indian cricket captain Mohd Azharuddin by a margin of 16,000 votes.

He is survived by his wife, Sunitha, son Vatsalyanath, and two daughters, Akshata and Disira. BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao, working president K T Rama Rao, Union minister G Kishan Reddy, and former ministers T Harish Rao and Talasani Srinivas Yadav were among several leaders who condoled the MLA’s death.