By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Hyderabad: One of the tallest Muslim political leader of Andhra region and the Muslim face of Telugu Desam Party for three decades S.M. Lal Jan Basha died in an unfortunate road accident on Thursday morning at Narkatpalli road in Nalgonda District, 80 k.m. from Hyderabad.
56 year old Lal Jan Pasha, who was presently holding the post of TDP Vice-President, was traveling towards Hyderabad from his hometown Guntur district when his SUV collided with the road divider resulting in fatal accident. Some local Telugu media news reports by showcasing the video footage of dented left side of his car has suggesting that an unidentified vehicle rammed his SUV.
When police reached the spot Lal Jan Basha was laying on the ground with serious injuries, he was found dead. His driver was alive with grave injury marks and was quickly shifted to a local hospital.
File photo of S.M. Lal Jan Basha .
Lal Jan Basha was one of the rare Telugu Muslim politicians from SeemaAndhra region who rose to prominence in a Telugu state where Muslim political space has been dominated by Urdu speaking Telengana Muslim leaders. His family was influential among Telugu Muslims even at the time of Madras presidency, his grandfather was the chairman of Guntur municipality and MLA in both Madras and the subsequent Andhra assembly.
Lal Jan Basha was associated with Telugu Desam Party since its formation; he created history in 1991 by becoming first Muslim Member of Parliament from coastal Andhra by defeating veteran Congress parliamentarian Acharya N.G. Ranga from Guntur constituency. But he lost subsequent elections from Guntur and Narsaraopet.
He won Guntur parliament seat in 1991 by pulling 3,07,073 votes, in 1996 elections he got 274,753, and faced defeat by present Union minister Sambasiva Rao. In 1998 election he pulled 40.16% nearly 3,02,109 votes but still faced the defeat, In 1999 elections he tried his luck with Narsaraopet constituency where he got 48.4% percentage 4,18,384 votes but lost with slight margin of just 13,882 votes.
He was later elected as Rajay Sabha member, TDP deputy Chairman, Polit Bureau member and finally as its vice-president.
Apart from his huge influence among Telugu Muslims of SeemaAndhra, Basha was considered a crucial vote grabber for TDP in southern costal Andhra districts. Lal Jan Pasha was also a good entrepreneur; he was the chairman of Bombay Mercantile Bank.
Muslim United Front an umbrella organization of Andhra Muslims in a press statement termed the death of Lal Jan Basha as big loss to the Muslims of Andhra Pradesh especially of the Andhra coastal belt.
MUF stated that Lal Jan Basha has made benchmark in Muslim politics of Andhra by becoming first Muslim MP from the region, according to MUF Mr. Basha didn’t acted as just a symbolic Muslim politician but raised Muslim issues at National level as M.P., and within the state as TDP leader. MUF remembered his contribution to solve Wakf issues as a member of Parliamentary Committee on Wakf affairs.
Chandra Babu Naidu paying tribute to Lal Jan Basha .
MUF stated that Lal Jan Basha was a soft spoken non-controversial man who always entertained issues of Andhra Muslims and raised it on several platforms.
In recent months Mr. Basha is the second senior TDP leader to die in a road accident, former union minister Yerran Naidu was killed in Srikakulam district in same kind of accident in November last year.
Lal Jan Basha’s sudden demise has saddened the main opposition party, many senior TDP leaders like N. Hari Krishna and Devender Goud rushed to the accident spot to receive the body. After the accident TDP leaders held a brief condolence program at their headquarter NTR Bhavan in Hyderabad.
TDP president N. Chandra Babu Naidu expressed his shock over the accident and termed the death of Basha as huge loss to TDP. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy has also paid his condolences to the family of Lal Jan Basha.
In a press statement Popular Front of India also exprssed shock and condolence, calling his death as great loss for the minorities, as he was serving for the development of Minorities in the state.
His dead body will be shifted to Guntur town by tonight, The Namaz-e-Janaza will be offered in his home town tomorrow after Friday prayer.