Former CM Nadendla Bhaskara Rao Passes Away at 90
The political landscape of Andhra Pradesh witnessed the end of a significant chapter , with the passing of veteran leader and former Chief Minister Nadendla Bhaskara Rao. The 90-year-old leader breathed his last at a private hospital in Hyderabad following a month-long battle with age-related health complications.
Born in Guntur district, Bhaskara Rao was a lawyer by profession before venturing into the political arena. He first entered the Legislative Assembly in 1978 and eventually became a pivotal figure in regional politics. He is famously remembered as the co-founder of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) alongside N.T. Rama Rao, playing a strategic role in the party’s historic rise in the early 1980s.
Bhaskara Rao’s political journey is most notably marked by the dramatic events of August 1984. During a period of intense political shifting, he served as the Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh for a brief but impactful 31-day tenure. Although his time in the top office was short, the “August Crisis” remains one of the most discussed episodes in the state’s democratic history.
In his later years, Bhaskara Rao transitioned through different political ideologies, representing the Congress party in the Lok Sabha from Khammam and eventually joining the BJP in 2019. He was a seasoned administrator whose insights into state governance were widely respected across party lines.
His son, Nadendla Manohar, currently serves as the Civil Supplies Minister in the Andhra Pradesh Cabinet. Leaders from various political parties, including CM Chandrababu Naidu and Deputy CM Pawan Kalyan, expressed their profound grief, describing his death as a major loss to the Telugu people and the political fraternity.
