Obituary - Former I & B Minister Shri. Jaipal Reddy passes away at 77

Sudini Jaipal Reddy (16 January 1942 – 28 July 2019) was an Indian politician who was the member of the Lok Sabha of India for five terms. He represented the Chevella constituency of Telangana and was a member of the Indian National Congress. He served as a Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting in IK Gujral cabinet in 1998.  In 2004 he was re-elected to 14th Lok Sabha from Miryalaguda Lok Sabha Constituency and then he served as a Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting and Union Minister for Urban Development. In 2009 he was re-elected to the 15th Lok Sabha from the Chevella constituency and served as a Union Minister for Urban Development and Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas. He was the Union Minister for the Ministry of Earth Sciences and the Ministry of Science and Technology from 29 October 2012 to 18 May 2014.

Reddy was born in Nermatta, a village in Chandur Mandal in Nalgonda District in Telangana State but is actually from Maadgula, Mahbubnagar district in Telangana. He had been polio-stricken since he was 18-months old and uses crutches to walk. He had  M.A. from the Osmania University, Hyderabad. He had been an agriculturist. He married Lakshmi on 7 May 1960. The couple have two sons and one daughter.

Reddy was a student leader during his college life and in 1970s he joined the Indian National Congress. He became an MLA of Kalwakurthy in Andhra Pradesh. Reddy was an MLA of Kalwakurthy between 1969 and 1984, a constituency in Andhra Pradesh for four terms. He quit his membership of the Congress Party to protest against the emergency and joined the Janata Party in 1977.  He was the general secretary of the Janata Party from 1985 to 1988. He was elected to the 8th Lok Sabha in 1984 from Mehbubnagar. He joined back the Congress Party in 1999 and was elected to the 14th in 2004 from Miryalaguda constituency and the 15th in 2009 from Chavella. He was also a member of the Rajya Sabha on two occasions, 1990–1996 and 1997–1998.

He also held the position of leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha for a year from June 1991 to June 1992.He served as the minister for Information and Broadcasting in the government on two occasions: in 1997–1998 under I. K. Gujral and from 2004 under Manmohan Singh with additional responsibility for Culture. He acted as the spokesman for several parties of which he has been a member and was awarded the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award in 1998. He was the first from South India and the youngest parliamentarian to achieve this award.