Hyderabad, March 09: He was a die-hard fan of megastar Chiranjeevi, so much so that he named his elder son after his idol.
When Chiranjeevi floated his Praja Rajyam Party, TV Hanumantha Rao knew THIS WAS IT. He quit his job, that of a police inspector, without a second thought.
He became chief security officer for Chiru and had even contested in the last Assembly elections from Salur.
He was on a high with dreams of a high flying political career egging him on. One month after the election, he was, in his own words, virtually on the road, defeated in the polls, penniless and without a job and with a wife and two sons to support. One of them an engineering student while the other is in Intermediate. ‘‘I informed Chiranjeevi of my plan to rejoin police service and requested him to recommend my case to the then chief minister the late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. But he did not evince any interest,’’ Hanumantha Rao recalls.
‘‘It was the most traumatic period in my life,’’ he says in an interview with Express.
But then, life is sometimes stranger than fiction. It was not his matinee idol but his one-time foe who came to his rescue, the man against whom he had contested the Assembly election: Salur MLA P Rajanna Dora of the Congress.
‘‘It was Congress MLA Malladi Vishnu, who took pity on me and and convinced Rajanna Dora to help me out. They took me to YSR. The former CM was so kind that he immediately directed his subordinates to bring my file. But the official concerned was on leave that day, so YSR told me, ’you will get back your job and an order will be issued at the earliest’,’’ Hanumantha Rao explains.
But as ill-luck would have it, Rajasekhara Reddy died a few days later in a helicopter crash. ’’I was so depressed fearing that I might never get my job back. The major cause of concern was the future of my sons. Because of my hasty decision to join politics, my family was left in the lurch,’’ he says reliving those harrowing moments.
Later, he met Chief Minister K Rosaiah and submitted a representation stating that he was badly in need of a job and pouring forth his family woes.
The State Government has recently issued orders reinstating Hanumantha Rao on humanitarian grounds. ‘‘I am extremely happy to wear the police uniform again,’’ Hanumantha Rao says with a sigh of relief.
There are 14 other such Hanumantha Raos who have sought reinstatement!
—Agencies