People's Democracy

Thousands Pay Homage To LBG

                                                               M Venugopala Rao

ON March 29, leaders of various political parties and mass organisations, thousands of well wishers from various walks of life and workers of the CPI(M) gave a tearful farewell to Comrade Lavu Bala Gangadhara Rao,  a Marxist revolutionary, one of the builders of the communist movement in Andhra Pradesh and a former member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s Polit Bureau. Comrade Lavu Bala Gangadhara Rao, popularly known as LBG, passed away in Hyderabad a day before, at the age of 82.

On March 28, the party’s red flag at Makineni Basavapunnaiah Bhavan, its state committee office, was flown at half-mast as soon as the doctors at the NIMS announced LBG’s death. The state’s chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and home minister T Devender Goud went to the NIMS to pay him homage. The chief minister said Bala Gangadhara Rao actively worked for creating social consciousness among the people and fought relentlessly on the problems confronting the people. His death was an irreparable loss to the people’s movements, Naidu added.

When LBG’s body was brought to M B Bhavan, hundreds of workers and well-wishers of the CPI(M) and mass organisations emotionally raised  slogans paying homage to him. The CPI(M)’s Polit Bureau member Koratala Satyanarayana, its state secretary B V Raghavulu, its Central Committee members M V Narasimha Reddy and Paturu Ramayya, state secretariat members V Srinivasa Rao, P Madhu, Y Radhakrishna Murthy, Y Venkateswara Rao, V Krishnaiah, Ch Narsing Rao, Venkatayya, Alluri Satyanarayana and veteran trade union leader Parsa Satyanarayana laid wreaths on Comrade LBG’s body. CPI leaders K Narayana and Aziz Pasha, Sundarayya Vignana Kendram secretary C Sambi Reddy, minister for school education Mandava Venkateswara Rao, CPI(ML) New Democracy leader G Vijaya Kumar, MCPI leader Venkata Reddy, CPI(M) assembly group leader Nomula Narasimhaiah and its MLA, S Rajayya, were among the thousands of others who paid homage to Comrade LBG.

Around 11:30 p m, after the gathering observed silence for two minutes and artistes of the Praja Natya Mandali presented revolutionary songs, LBG’s body was taken to Vijayawada.

On March 29, thousands of leaders, workers, sympathisers and well wishers of the CPI(M) and leaders of other political parties and mass organisations visited the Marxist Karyalayam in Vijayawada, where Comrade LBG’s body was kept to enable the people to pay him last respects. Several leaders and prominent people came forward to console his wife Sarojini, son Sagar and daughter-in-law Sobha.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau members Sitaram Yechury and K Satyanarayana,  Central Committee members B V Raghavulu, Paturu Ramayya, Mallu Swarajyam, Jakka Venkayya and Tammineni Veerabhadram, its state secretariat members, and several leaders of the CPI, other Left parties, the Congress, TDP and BJP paid homage to Comrade LBG. Among them were G Rammohan Rao (TDP MP), former ministers D Rajasekhar and M K Baig, Madala Narayanaswamy (CPI(ML) New Democracy), PCC doctors cell’s chairman Dr Gangadhar, MCPI leader B N Reddy, BJP leader Ranga Prasad, CPI(ML) Unity Initiative leader Jaswanth, Samata Party leader V V Krishna Rao and CPI(ML) Liberation leader N Murthy.

The last journey of Comrade LBG started from Marxist Karyalayam in the evening, when a very large number of people participated in the long funeral procession. With red shirt volunteers marching in front of the procession, the body was taken out on a vehicle, followed by thousands of people, raising resounding slogans in tribute to LBG. A condolence meeting was held after the comrade’s mortal remains were consigned to flames at Swargapuri Crematorium. Sitaram Yechury garlanded the portrait of Comrade LBG. The meeting observed silence for two minutes. 

The leaders who addressed the meeting were of the opinion that even though Comrade LBG’s death was an irreparable loss to the communist movement, the new generation would definitely come forward to fill the gap and fulfil the tasks left unfinished. Paying rich tributes to him, they recollected Comrade LBG’s dedicated work in building the communist movement for over a period of six and a half decades, and said he was a relentless fighter who worked till the end for the ideology he believed in. 

Raghavulu presided over the meeting.  Sitaram Yechury, K Satyanarayana, Paturu Ramayya, Mallu Swarajyam, Jakka Venkayya, CPI leader Idpuganti Nageswara Rao, CPI(ML) New Democracy leader Madala Narayana Swamy, MCPI leader B N Reddy, CPI(ML) Unity Initiative leader Jaswanth, Samata Party leader V V Krishna Rao, CPI(ML) Liberation leader N Murthy, members of Comrade LBG’s family and many others participated in the meeting.