United in grief: BRS Secunderabad Cantonment MLA Lasya Nanditha’s death creates a void in Telangana politics

Hyderabad: It seems death was chasing the young legislator from Secunderabad Cantonment G Lasya Nanditha and each time she was dodging death till the fateful car mishap on Outer Ring Road (ORR) in the early hours of February 23, 2024.

Just 10 days ago, 37-year-old Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLA Lasya Nanditha narrowly escaped death in another car accident at Narketpally where she sustained minor injuries while her home guard G Kishore died. It happened while she was on her way to Nalgonda to attend a public rally by former chief minister and BRS leader K Chandrasekhar Rao. A car driven by a drunk driver had rammed into her vehicle in that incident. Nanditha had also tweeted about the incident.

Even before that, on December 23, 2023, she survived a lift accident when it crashed six feet at a private apartment in Secunderabad due to overloading. She was stuck in the lift for some time.

But at around 5.30 AM on Friday, an angel of death snatched the life young legislator when her driver lost control of their Maruti XL 6 and rammed into the metal road divider at Outer Ring Road near Patancheru in Sangareddy district’s Aminpur Mandal. She was returning to Hyderabad after attending a private function at Sadashivpet last night. It is surmised that the driver might have fallen asleep while driving the vehicle. According to the police, her driver is critically injured and is undergoing treatment. Though the severely injured MLA was also shifted to a nearby hospital, she was declared “dead on arrival” and she had likely died on the spot.

It was almost exactly a year ago that Lasya Nanditha lost her father, Gaini Sayanna, who had been a five-time MLA from Secunderabad Cantonment. The 72-year-old politician was undergoing treatment for a kidney ailment and also suffered a heart attack. Nanditha is survived by her mother G Geetha and two sisters Niveditha and Namratha.

A promising political career cut short

On Friday morning, residents of Secunderabad woke up to the tragic news of the young MLA’s passing away. Condolences poured in from leaders cutting across party lines. From former Chief Minister KCR to incumbent CM Revanth Reddy, everyone paid homage to the departed soul.

Born in 1986 in Hyderabad, Nanditha entered politics as a GHMC corporator from the Kavadiguda ward in 2016. After her father died in 2023, she got tickets from BRS to contest the recently-held Telangana Assembly elections from the Secunderabad Cantonment constituency (SC-reserved constituency).

As per her affidavit and declaration of assets filed before the Election Commission before the Telangana Assembly elections, Lasya Nanditha had no criminal cases against her. Her declared assets amounted to around Rs 1.77 crore. She passed from A P Ratna Junior College in 2004. It’s also reported that she had studied B.Tech in Computer Science for some time.

In her debut contest on the MLA ticket, she won by defeating BJP candidate N Sriganesh by a margin of 17,169 votes and she also defeated late balladeer Gaddar’s daughter G V Vennela who contested on the Indian National Congress (INC) ticket. Nanditha polled 59,057 votes while the BJP candidate Sriganesh secured 41,888 votes.