03 September,2009 04:08 PM IST | | IANS
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy and four others have been killed, officials in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) confirmed on Thursday, more than 24 hours after his helicopter went missing in a densely forested area.
"The bodies have been recovered. They will be taken to Hyderabad for post-mortem," a PMO official in New Delhi said shortly after the mangled remains of the Bell helicopter were found on a hilltop in Kurnool, about 200 km from here.
Helicopters, search parties and villagers had conducted the search in pouring rain for a whole day and night in the forested hinterland for the wreckage, which was finally located about 40 nautical miles east of Kurnool town.
The 60-year-old chief minister, popularly known as YSR, was going to Chittoor, 588 km from this state capital, for a mass contact programme when his helicopter went missing in inclement weather around 9.30 am on Wednesday in the Nallamalla forests.
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With YSR, who this May steered the Congress to a second stint in power, was his principal secretary P Subramaniam, his chief security officer ASC Wesley and the two pilots of the ill-fated helicopter - Group Captain SK Bhatia and Captain MS Reddy.
The news stunned the Congress. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi are expected to reach Hyderabad on Thursday.
There was shock, disbelief and tears in Andhra Pradesh as news came in that there were no survivors from the crash.
"He is my god. I can't believe that he is no more," said an inconsolable Congress worker.
Crowds gathered outside the state secretariat, the chief minister's camp office and Gandhi Bhavan, the headquarters of the ruling Congress.
YSR was last seen on Wednesday morning when he went to launch the Rachcha Banda, a mass contact programme, in Chittoor despite apprehensions of bad weather.
It was only around 5 am on Wednesday that senior police officials in Chittoor district were informed by the chief minister that he would be visiting Anuppalle village to launch Rachcha Banda programme.
A day after the budget session of the state assembly concluded, YSR had chosen a remote village in Anuppalle to launch the programme of surprise visits to villages to know people's problems.
YSR: A doctor with a finger on the public pulse
