Jaganmohan Reddy on Monday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging the Centre to posthumously confer Bharat Ratna on the legendary SP Balasubrahmanyam.

In the letter, Jagan said that SPB's untimely demise has caused much distress not only to his Indian fans, but also affected the international music fraternity. "His immense popularity and the deep impact he left on the global music industry in his 50 years of legacy, can be gauged by the continuous flow of rich tributes from music aficionados all over the world," the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh said.

The CM made mention of SPB's stellar achievements such as recording 40,000 songs, winning a number of laurels, including AP state awards and suchlike. He reminded the Prime Minister that Balu had been conferred with Padma Bhushan and Padma Sri by the government of India in the past.

Saying that the likes of Lata Mangeshkar, Bhupen Hazarika, MS Subbulakshmi, Bismillah Khan and Bhimsen Joshi from the music field were conferred with Bharat Ratna, Jagan opined that conferring the highest civilian honour of the country on Balu will be a fitting tribute.