Former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Nedurumilli Janardhan Reddy passed away in the early hours on Friday after brief illness. There are many senior leaders from the south who has contributed for Congress Party, such and YS Rajashekhara Reddy and PV Narasimharao. Andhra has also played a vital role in elevation of Congress during their crises period such as emergency. In the series, the party has lost one more leader. He was 80 and is survived by wife and four sons. Nedurumalli Janardhana Reddy was a member of the 12th, 13th and 14th Lok Sabha of India. He represents the Visakhapatnam constituency of Andhra Pradesh and is a member of the Indian National Congress. He was also a Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh from 1990 to 1992. His wife, Nedurumalli Rajyalakshmi, has been a minister in the Andhra Pradesh government since 2004.
In September 2007, Reddy escaped an assassination attempt near Nellore by naxal groups. Janardhana Reddy and his wife both escaped the event unhurt. A flash gun that was probably used to trigger the blast was found in the direction of Gudali village. This is the second bid on Mr. Reddy’s life. The earlier one was in Dachepalle in Guntur district in 2003. In Hyderabad, Minister for Information A. Ramnarayan Reddy said a youth was picked up at the site for interrogation. Claiming to be an engineering student, he visited the Nedurumallis house in Vakadu. He had sought help in securing admission for a post doctoral course and enquired whether Mr. Reddy was going to Tirupati. Minutes after the blast, he was seen at the spot.
Finally, the end came around 5.50 am in the Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) hospital in Hyderabad, where he was admitted for treatment of his ailments. His body was shifted to his residence in Somajiguda area and the last rites will be performed at his native village in Wakadu of Nellore district on Saturday.
He has served many portfolios since he was elected in 1972 Elected to Rajya Sabha 1978-79 Secretary. Before that, he was a minister in the Cabinets of Jalagam Vengal Rao, T. Anjaiah, B. Venkatram, K. Vijayabhaskara Reddy and Marri Channa Reddy. Entered politics in 1972, he went on to become close to the family members of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi after he was made a Rajya Sabha member.
He was elected to the AP Legislative Council during1978-84 and was a minister under different Chief Ministers during 1978-83. He went on to become the Chief Minister in 1990 after Marri Channa Reddy had quit following the large-scale communal clashes in Hyderabad.
Late Janardhan Reddy was the Chief Minister for about two years but he was also forced by circumstances arising out of alleged irregularities in sanction of new engineering colleges in the private sector to quit the office. He was elected to Lok Sabha from Bapatla, Narasaraopeta and Visakhapatnam three times in 1998, 1999 and 2004. He was elected to Rajya Sabha in 2009 and continues to be a member of the Upper House till death.
Born on Feb 20, 1935 at Wakadu, Janardhan Reddy was a school teacher before taking a plunge into politics. He was made the AP Congress Committee president in 1988 and was replaced by Marri Channa Reddy in 1989, who led the Congress party to regain power in AP after N.T. Rama Rao’s Telugu Desam Party held sway from 1983 to 89.
He holds the distinctive record of representing the Upper and Lower Houses in AP and at the Centre as he was also elected to the State Assembly from Venkatagiri in 1989. His wife N. Rajyalakshmi also worked as a minister in the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy cabinet from 2004 to 2009.
The Indian National Congress won all the state elections from the emergence of the state in 1953 till 1983. Projects like Nagarjuna Sagar and Srisailam Dams were constructed during this time. There were ten different chief ministers from the formation of the state in 1956 till 1983. Marri Chenna Reddy formed the Telangana Praja Samiti party to lead the Telangana movement. In November 1969, there was a major split in the party which eventually led to the downfall of the movement. In September 1971, Kasu Brahmananda Reddy, the then Chief Minister, resigned his position to make room for a leader from Telangana to become the Chief Minister. On 30 September 1971, P. V. Narasimha Rao became the Chief Minister. The Telangana Praja Samiti was dissolved and its members rejoined the Congress. In the Andhra Pradesh general election, 2009, the Indian National Congress under the leadership of YSR won a simple majority by winning 156 of 294 assembly seats. Telugu Desam Party gained a few more assembly seats than the previous election. Praja Rajyam Party founded by Chiranjeevi won 16 per cent of the votes. The TRS and the Left parties in combination won less than 7 per cent of the votes. Lok Satta Party won its first Assembly seat and captured more than 1 per cent vote share. As Rajasekhara Reddy died on September 2, 2009 in a helicopter crash, K. Rosaiah of the Indian National Congress took charges as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. However Rosaiah resigned as Chief Minister on health grounds. The next day, on November 25, 2010, Chief Minister Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy of Indian National Congress took charges as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister has gone through lots of tragedies during his life time, by natural and unnatural calamities.
