Former AP CM Nadendla Bhaskar Rao Passes Away at 90

Rao played a crucial role in the formation of the Telugu Desam under the leadership of N.T. Rama Rao in 1982. As one of its founding members, he made significant contributions to strengthen the party’s organisational structure, which helped it to win power in the 1983 elections, with N.T. Rama Rao becoming the chief minister.

However, Rao’s political journey took a dramatic turn when he revolted against NTR and defected from the TD along with a group of legislators to become the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. However, his tenure turned out to be short, but it sparked a major constitutional and political crisis, which eventually led to the reinstatement of NTR as the CM.

During his short tenure as the Chief Minister, Bhaskara Rao took several administrative decisions. One was to award five grace marks for students of both SSC and Intermediate who failed in the regular exams during March/April, 1984. A good number of students passed their final exams with the award of grace marks.

However, Rao remained an experienced political strategist and played a significant role in state politics for decades. Political observers recall him as a leader who was deeply involved in the evolving political dynamics in AP.

Bhaskara Rao was born to Pitchaiah and Venkayamma on June 23, 1935, at Donepudi village of Kolluru mandal in Tenali of Guntur district. After completion of his schooling, he moved to Hyderabad and completed BA and did his LLB in an evening college of law. He married Lalitha in 1959, and the couple had two sons — Murali and Manohar.

As he practised law, Bhaskara Rao became a prominent advocate in the AP High Court. Initially, he joined the Congress and moved to the Indira Congress and worked as its general secretary for AP. In 1978, he successfully contested as an MLA from the Vijayawada East Assembly constituency and served as a minister in the AP Cabinet from 1978 to 1979.

Bhaskara Rao served as the CM from August 16 to September 16, 1984, and also worked with various CMs, including Marri Chenna Reddy and T. Anjaiah. He became a member of Parliament from Khammam in 1998.

His youngest son Nadendla Manohar contested successfully from the Tenali Assembly segment representing the Congress in 2004 and served as Deputy Speaker in the Assembly in 2009 and as the Speaker from 2011 to 2014. He joined the Jana Sena floated by Pawan Kalyan in 2018. At present, he is serving as the party’s political affairs committee chairman. After he was elected again from the Tenali Assembly segment in the 2024 polls, Manohar became the minister for civil supplies in the alliance government.

Several leaders condoled the death of Nadendla Bhaskara Rao. Governor S. Abdul Nazeer expressed profound grief and sadness on the passing away of Rao. Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu expressed profound grief at the death of Rao. He called up Manohar and consoled him and conveyed his sympathy to the bereaved family members.

Pawan Kalyan expressed his condolences on the death of Bhaskara Rao and prayed to God that his soul rest in peace and wished Rao’s youngest son and his ministerial colleague Nadendla Manohar to recover from the pain of the loss soon.

Several ministers as also YSRC president and former chief minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy expressed their grief over the death of Rao.

Rao’s last rites would be performed at the Hindu cemetery at Panjagutta in Hyderabad at 4 pm on Thursday as per his wish, according to the family members.