India state 'in deep mourning'

NEW DELHI–A strange phenomenon is occurring in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. As of yesterday, an estimated 67 people had died after learning of the death of their powerful 60-year-old chief minister. Some killed themselves out of despair, others died of shock, according to local news reports.

Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s body was discovered Thursday in the tangled wreckage of a U.S.-made Indian army helicopter that crashed a day earlier in the forests of Nallamala. The chief minister was on a flight from the state capital, Hyderabad, to the city of Chittor.

“We are in deep mourning,” P. Chidambaram, India’s home minister, told reporters. Indeed, Reddy was hugely popular in his state where he was known simply as YSR. The doctor and Congress Party stalwart won a second term in office in May and had never lost an election since he entered politics in 1978.

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