The tragic death of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YSR Reddy, who was on his way to launch yet another mass contact programme when the helicopter carrying him crashed in the dense Nallamalla forests, has come as a major shock to the entire nation.
The nation has for sure lost a great leader, who was known for his administrative skills, his ability to feel the nerves of the masse and his strong conviction to transform Andhra Pradesh into a developed and progressive state.
The untimely death of YSR has also dealt a major blow to the ruling Congress party, which managed to bring down the TDP’s rein in 2004 polls under his able leadership.
Hailed as peoples’ popular leader, YSR took over as Chief Minister of the state for the first time on May 14, 2004. Since then, there was no looking back for the mass leader, who hailed from Rayalaseema.
YSR’s belief in the grassroot politics and his peoples’ welfare agenda helped him clinch power when he was sworn-in as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister for the second successive term in the 2008 Assembly Elections.
He also served as a trained doctor before entering public life and later emerged as one of the strongest Congress leaders produced by the state.
The 60-year-old leader also broke a 53-year-old jinx for the Congress party by becoming its first Chief Minister to retain power. A feat achieved before only by legendary NT Rama Rao of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in the 1980s.
He also had the credit of becoming the first Chief Minister in the state’s history to complete a full five-year term.
As a true winner in his political career spanning three decades, YSR was elected to the State Assembly for five times. YSR was also a four-time Lok Sabha member and never lost an election.
He single-handedly ran the Congress party’s Lok Sabha campaign beating the hectic electioneering by top stars of the tinsel world in favour of TDP and megastar Chiranjeev’s Praja Rajyam.
YSR tasted success despite facing a hostile poll campaign from both the TDP-led four-party Grand Alliance and Praja Rajyam, and proved his detractors wrong.
His popularity among masses can be gauzed from the fact that he clinched power even without promising free TV sets, cash doles and without banking on big filmstars.
Beating the anti-incumbency factor, YSR managed to showcase his government’s achievements in his first five year term versus the ‘poor credibility record’ of his main rival TDP’s N Chandrababu Naidu.
Born in a middle-class family at Pulivendula, a small town in Kadapa district, on July 8, 1949, YSR had a modest beginning. He was the eldest of the five sons of YS Raja Reddy, a dynamic local leader in his heydays.
His inclination towards politics started while he was pursuing his MBBS course at MR Medical College, Gulbarga in Karnataka.
He entered active politics in 1978 and was elected to the State Assembly from Pulivendula. He served as state minister from 1980 to 1983 and retained the assembly seat in 1983 even when NTR swept to power with a historic victory.
YSR was appointed as president of the state unit of Congress at the age of 34 by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who saw in him the potential of a great leader.
In 1989, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Kadapa and held the seat till 1999, when he shifted again to state politics. From 1998 to 2000, he again served as president of the state Congress.
Though the party lost the 1999 state elections, YSR emerged as the strongest leader of the party and became the Leader of Opposition.
The year 2003 was a turning point in his political career as he rose to national fame following his 64-day padyatra across the state. Covering 1,500 km under the scorching sun, he received petitions from people about their problems, mainly relating to agriculture and unemployment.
His experiences during the padyatra helped him shape his future policies after assuming office as he gave free electricity to farmers, waived their loans, introduced several welfare schemes like pension for the aged, widows and handicapped, housing for poor, Rs 2/kg rice, Rajiv Arogyasri or community health insurance scheme and a massive programme to build irrigation projects.
His sincere efforts bore the fruits as the Congress party managed to win as many as 156 of Andhra Pradesh’s 294 seats and bagged 33 of its 42 Lok Sabha seats this time.
YSR’s untimely death is an irreparable loss to the entire nation and has created a void, which only time can fill. YSR will be remembered as a dynamic leader, a great visionary and a humble man forever. We at Siasat News prey that the departed leader’s soul rests in his heavenly abode eternally.