On 2 September 2009, a helicopter carrying Reddy went missing in the Nallamala Forest area which was later confirmed to have crashed with all five people including Reddy pronounced dead.[7]
Padayatra
In 2003, he undertook a three-month-long padayatra covering 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) in 60 days across 11 districts of Andhra Pradesh as a part of his election campaign. He led the Congress party to victory in the 2004 and 2009 assembly elections.[8]
Reddy led the congress party to victory in the 2004 assembly election and served as the 14th Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh from 2004 to 2009. During his tenure as Chief Minister, he enacted schemes to provide free electricity for farmers, a health insurance program for rural people living below the poverty line,[18] a free public ambulance service,[19] low interest loans to rural women, subsidised housing for the rural poor,[20] subsidized rice,[21] reimbursement of college fees for underprivileged and reservation for minorities.[22] His tenure also saw the weakening of the violent extremist left-wing Naxalite movement that was rampant in the state.[11] He commenced the Jala Yagnam project to irrigate 4,000,000 hectares (10,000,000 acres) of land through the construction of major, medium and minor irrigation projects.[23]
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh paying homage at the mortal remains of Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy
On 2 September 2009, Reddy's was traveling in a Bell 430helicopter and the Begumpet and Shamshabadair traffic controllers lost contact with the aircraft at 10:02 am while it was passing through the dense Nallamala forest area.[28] The Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh said that inclement weather had forced the helicopter off course.[29][30] Although the sparsely populated forest area is considered to be a stronghold of the outlawed Naxal insurgents, the National Security Advisor of India ruled out the possibility of the Naxals bringing down the helicopter.[31] On 3 September, the Prime Minister's Office confirmed the crash of the helicopter and the death of all aboard along with Reddy.[32][33] The director general of police said that the bodies were charred beyond recognition and had to be identified on the basis of clothing and the autopsy was carried out at Kurnool Medical College.[34][35] An investigation eventually concluded that the factors that caused that crash was from mechanical issues and worse weather conditions.[36]
Reddy's body was buried on 4 September at Idupulapai in Kadapa district with full state honors in accordance with Christian rites.[37][38] As per media reports, 122 people died of shock or committed suicide upon hearing the news of Reddy's death, many of whom were young supporters or those who benefited from his social welfare schemes.[39]Finance ministerKonijeti Rosaiah was sworn in as Chief Minister following Reddy's death.[40]
Criticism
Reddy was accused of amassing large amounts of money during his tenure as the Chief Minister.[41] He is said to have used populist schemes like irrigation projects and housing schemes to his advantage and earned huge profits through them.[41][42] In a leaked United States diplomatic cable, the American Consul General quotes that there was "widespread corruption that was beyond the pale even for India".[42][43] The surrender of more than 650 hectares (1,600 acres) of personal land by Reddy to the government to be compliant with the law in December 2006 was criticised by opposition parties. The opposition parties demanded his resignation for owning the land in violation of the law.[44]
N. Chandrababu Naidu also called for Reddy's resignation after a 2007 Khammam police shooting resulted in eight deaths.[45] A federal probe of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was also launched to investigate disproportionate assets acquired by his son, Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy, in return for favours his father made to the industrialists. In May 2012, the CBI arrested Mopidevi Venkataramana, the then Infrastructure Minister in Reddy's cabinet, who was responsible for unduly assigning the land to a private organisations.[46]
