Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy

Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy వై.ఎస్.రాజశేఖర్ రెడ్డి
In office 14 May 2004 – 2 September 2009
Preceded by	N. Chandrababu Naidu
Succeeded by	Konijeti Rosaiah
Constituency	Pulivendula
Leader of the Opposition (Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly)
In office 1999–2004
Born	8 July 1949(1949-07-08) Jammalamadugu, Andhra Pradesh
Died	2 September 2009(2009-09-02) (aged 60) Andhra Pradesh, India
Political party	Indian National Congress
Spouse(s)	Vijayalakshmi
Children	Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy , Sharmila
Residence	Begumpet, Hyderabad
Religion	Anglican Christian[1][2]

Yeduguri Sandinti Rajasekhara Reddy (Telugu: యేడుగురి సందింటి రాజశేఖర రెడ్డి) (8 July 1949 – 2 September 2009), popularly known as YSR, was a two-time Chief Minister of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

He was elected to the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th Lok Sabha from the Kadapa constituency for four terms and to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly for five terms from the Pulivendula constituency. He holds the record of not losing any election throughout his political career.^[3] In 2003 he undertook a three-month-long paadayaatra, or walking tour of 1475 km in hot summer, across several districts in Andhra Pradesh.^[4] He led his party to victory in the next general and assembly elections held in 2004 and also the next election in 2009. He is the only chief minister of AP to have come back to power after being in office for a full term.

On 2 September 2009, a helicopter carrying Reddy went missing in the Nallamala forest area. On the morning of 3 September 2009, media agencies reported that the helicopter had been found crashed on top of Rudrakonda Hill, 40 nautical miles from Kurnool. This was later confirmed by the Prime Minister's office and all five people aboard were pronounced dead at the scene.^[5][6][7]

Personal life and religious beliefs

Reddy was married to Vijaya Lakshmi.^[8] They have a son, Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, a politician,^[9] and a daughter, Sharmila.^[10] His younger brother Y. S. Vivekananda Reddy is also a Congress(I) politician.

Reddy's parents were devout Christians^[11] and he was buried according to Christian rites.^[12] He had also visited Bethlehem and other holy Christian cities in Israel twice.^[9] Although Reddy was a third generation Christian, he is described as an "ardent devotee" of the Hindu deity Venkateswara. He regularly visited the central temple of the god at Tirupati.^[13][14] But, his government was also entangled in many controversies involving the affairs of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, which included practicing of evangelism in Tirumala.^[15] Following these allegations, he ordered a ban on evangelism and Christian missionary activities in Andhra Pradesh's Hindu shrines.^[16][17]

Career

. Although Chandra babu Naidu has almost served 2 terms a chief minister, he did not win the elections for TDP in his first term. Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy practiced medicine for sometime in his native Kadapa District. The hospital his father built for him at Pulivendula is still running. His family also built and ran a degree college and a polytechnic college at Pulivendula which was later handed over to the Loyola Group of Educational Institutions. Another junior college at Simhadripuram, a small town in the vicinity of Pulivendula, is run by his family. He never lost an election through out his political career of 30 years.^[3]

As Chief Minister

He was elected as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh by the Legislature party of the Indian National Congress after they later won 185 seats of the Legislative Assembly in the May 2004 elections. During his role as CM, the following steps were taken-

• The violent extremist Naxalite movement in the state received a death blow due primarily due to lack of support from rural masses as his governments welfare programs reached them.^[18]
• Free power supply for farmers for 7 hours a day.
• Rajiv Arogya Shree – A health insurance and emergency services scheme (consisting of 108 & 104) for rural masses where the government pays the entire price of any surgery up to 200,000 rupee and does not require people to pay any premium(This policy was completely targeted to one section of audience(white card holders))^[19]
• Pavala Vaddi — a program that provides loans to people at 3% per year so as to encourage them to take up small scale businesses and entrepreneurship primarily targeted at rural women
• Indiramma illu — a program for construction of houses for the rural masses by charging a small amount and the government the remaining amount
• Rs 2/KG of rice scheme^[20]
• Increase in the minimum support price for rice.
• Reimbursement of full college fees for backward sections, reservations for minorities

Andhra Pradesh has made big strides in areas of Sustainable Agriculture by introducing "JALAYAGNAM" scheme with an aim of 50,00,000 acers of land to make cultivable land with a budge of Rs 1,00,000 crores., Food security, Access to credit and other social aspects during his tenure as chief minister.^[21] Apart from these schemes, his government stood as the role model in implementing the central governments flagship program – the NREGA.^[22] The main thrust of his tenure was on social welfare with a majority of his schemes targeting at improving the lively hood of the rural masses. The BBC has called him a champion of social welfare schemes.^[23]

His tenure also saw significant weakening of the violent extremist left-wing Naxalite movement that was rampant in the state when he assumed office in 2004.^[24] The movement was so intense that the former chief minister Chandrababu Naidu's car was blasted by them in October 2003. A major reason for the weakening of the Naxalite movement is either due to negotiations which resulted in their surrender, for the schemes offered by Mr. Reddy's Government, or due to the increase in number of police checkposts and intelligence.

Election 2009

Reddy's major campaign slogan for the 2009 election was "Development and the credibility". He was seeking a mandate on his performance in his previous tenure. He did not promise any new schemes before the election and only promised continuation and minor extensions to the on going schemes. The opposition parties had formed a 'Grand alliance' comprising of the major opposition party – the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the communist parties. The TDP had promised numerous freebies including free color televisions and the unique cash transfer scheme (CTS) . There was also a new party PRP floated by a popular film star called Chiranjeevi. (TDP),(TRS),(CPI(M)) formed "mahakootami" and Chiranjeevi's (PRP) on the other hand to win against Mr. Reddy, but Mr.Reddy Rajasekhara Reddy fought a one man battle with stoic courage and stood as congress party's cynosure. Under his leadership congress came in to power for the second time.

In the elections, Reddy's party (INC) surpassed the required majority in the assembly (148 seats) by winning 156 seats. It also bagged 33 seats in parliament out of 42 seats. This was seen as a very big victory for Reddy since he was able to come back to power for the second consecutive term against the odds of anti-incumbency and an almost unified opposition.^[25] He became the Congress party’s first chief minister since 1969, that is, in four decades, to be able to seek votes in his own name, and win.^[26]

Reddy was sworn in as the chief minister for the term of 2009–2014 on 20 May 2009. The ceremony was held in Hyderabad's Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium and attended by a crowd of around 20,000 people.^[27] He is the only CM of Andhra Pradesh to come back to power after serving a full 5 year term

Positions held

• Minister of state for rural development (1980–82)
• Excise minister (1982)
• Education minister (1982–83)
• Leader of Opposition, Andhra Pradesh State Assembly (1999–2004)
• Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh (2004–2009)
• Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh (20-May-2009 To 02-Sep-2009)

Controversies

The surrender of more than 1600 acres by Reddy to the government during his own term in December 2006 was criticized by the opposition parties who demanded resignation from his post.^[28] Naidu also called for Reddy's resignation after a 2007 Khammam police shooting resulted in eight deaths.^[29]

Death

Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy's Bell 430 helicopter went missing on Wednesday, 2 September 2009 at 9:35 am. Begumpet and Shamshabad Air Traffic controllers lost contact with the aircraft at 9:02 am while it was passing through the dense Nallamala forest area.^[30] The Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh, P. Ramakanth Reddy, said that inclement weather had forced the helicopter off-course.^[31][32] Although the sparsely populated forest area is considered to be stronghold of the outlawed Naxal communist insurgents, the National Security Advisor of India ruled out the possibility of the Naxals bringing down the helicopter.^[33]

The Indian Prime Minister's Office confirmed the helicopter's crash on the morning of 3 September and the death of all aboard, including Reddy, his special secretary P. Subrahmanyam, chief security officer A. S. C. Wesley, Group Captain S. K. Bhatia and Captain M. S. Reddy .^[34][35] The Director General of Police said that the bodies of Reddy and others were charred beyond recognition and had to be identified on the basis of clothing.^[36] The autopsy of all the bodies was carried out at Kurnool Medical College.^[37]

An investigation eventually concluded that the factors that caused that crash included the fact that the crew became fixated for more than six minutes in trying to find out what was behind a problem with their transmission oil pressure system, and they became distracted from the worsening weather. It was also noted that the pilots of the helicopter never discussed the bad weather, diverting, or returning to base.^[38]

Reddy's body was buried on 4 September at Idupulapai in Kadapa district with full state honors in accordance with Christian rites.^[39][40]

Aftermath

Finance Minister Konijeti Rosaiah was sworn in as Chief Minister following the death of incumbent Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.^[41] The media reported that 400 people died after hearing of Reddy's death (either due to heart attack or by committing suicide). Many papers mentioned that the mass number of deaths reported was first of its kind for a politician.^[42][43] His death was regarded by Yahoo India as the biggest farewell for the year 2009.^[44] His demise created a vacuum in the state politics and is a major blow to the ruling Congress party.

References

ysr

External links

• Government profile