Former Maoist ideologue and revolutionary balladeer Gaddar passed away here on Sunday after a brief illness. He was 74.

He breathed his last at a private hospital, where he was admitted 10 days ago after suffering a cardiac arrest. He is survived by his wife Vimala and a son and a daughter. His another son Chandrudu had passed away in 2003.

Born in a Dalit family at Toopran in Medak district in 1949, Gaddar’s original name was Gummadi Vittal Rao but he became popular with his stage name Gaddar.

He was a revolutionary singer and a sympathiser of Naxalism, right from his days at the Osmania University Engineering College. He actively participated in the Telangana agitation in 1969-70s and lent his voice to many songs in support of the movement.

He became popular as a ‘people’s singer’ with his revolutionary songs, highlighting people’s problems. He also acted in Telugu films ‘Maa Bhoomi’ and ‘Rangula Kala’. In ‘Maa Bhoomi’, he sang ‘Bandenka Bandi Katti’, which became a popular song.

He went underground in the 1980s and founded Jana Natya Mandali, a travelling theatre group. Known for his soulful, melodious folk songs with simple lyrics, Gaddar attracted people, especially the youth, towards Maoist ideology.

The group later became the cultural wing of the CPI(ML) People’s War, which merged with the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) in 2004 to form CPI(Maoist).

Gaddar had escaped an assassination bid in 1997 when unidentified men had shot at him at his residence on the outskirts of Hyderabad. Though he survived the attack, he still had a bullet in his spinal cord. He had blamed the police and then Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government for the assassination attempt.

In the first-ever direct talks between then Andhra Pradesh government and People’s War in 2004, Gaddar, along with revolutionary writers and poets Varavara Rao and Kalyan Rao, had acted as emissaries for the Maoists.

During his stint with the Maoist party, Gaddar strongly campaigned against electoral politics and called for a boycott of polls. In 2017, he gave up Maoism and declared himself ‘Ambedkarite’.

Gaddar subsequently enrolled himself as a voter the same year and for the first time in his life he cast his vote in 2018.

There were speculation that he will join the Congress. His son G.V. Surya Kiran had joined the Congress in 2018. Gaddar too campaigned for the party in a few constituencies, but he did not contest elections.

In October last year, Gaddar had joined the Praja Shanti Party (PSP) of evangelist K.A. Paul and decided to campaign for the party in the Munugode Assembly by-election.

However, in June this year, Gaddar announced that he is floating the Gaddar Praja Party. He also submitted an application to the Election Commission of India for registration of the party.

Gaddar had told mediapersons that it will be a people’s party.

“Since right to live itself is endangered, our party will fight to safeguard this basic right guaranteed by the Constitution of India,” he had said.

He had also announced that he will contest elections, but had said that the constituency will be decided by the party.

“When I was fighting as an individual, I had said that I would contest against (Telangana Chief Minister) KCR, but now there is a party and it will decide the constituency,” he said.

His last public appearance was on July 2 in Khammam, when he had hugged Rahul Gandhi at the massive public meeting of the Congress.

The balladeer had made a surprise appearance on the dais. After shaking hands with Rahul Gandhi, Gaddar hugged him and planted kisses on the cheeks of the Congress leader amid loud cheers from the audience.

Rahul Gandhi had also invited Gaddar to take a seat next to him.