Hyderabad:
Senior Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader
K. Yerran Naidu died in a road accident in the early hours today when he was returning to his home district of Srikakulam from Visakhapatnam after attending a wedding. The vehicle he was travelling in hit an oil tanker at around 2 this morning. Seven people including 55-year-old Naidu were in the vehicle. Mr Naidu was in the front seat by the side of the driver. He was rushed to a hospital nearby where efforts to revive him did not succeed.
TDP president Chandrababu Naidu suspended his padyatra in Mahbubnagar district and left for Srikakulam to attend Yerran Naidu's last rites.
Four time MP and four time MLA Yerran Naidu was union rural development minister between 1996 and 98. He was TDP leader for several years and the face of the Telugu Desam in Delhi.
Recently made Minister of State Killi Krupa Rani was called a giant-killer when she defeated him in 2009 to win the Srikakulam Lok Sabha seat.
A very popular leader representing north coastal Andhra Pradesh, his absence will be missed by his party.