HYDERABAD : Yadlapati Venkata Rao, a veteran TDP leader and former Andhra Pradesh minister, died on Monday in Hyderabad. He was 102 years old. Venkata Rao died at his daughter's home in Hyderabad.
He was born in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh and served as the state's agricultural minister in the undivided state of Andhra Pradesh in the late 1970s. He was a close supporter of farmer leader and liberation fighter N. G. Ranga. He was also the president of Sangam Dairy, which he founded.
Venkata Rao was first elected to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly in 1967 as a Swatantra Party candidate from the Vemuru constituency. In 1972, he was re-elected. He was re-elected on the Congress party ticket in 1978. Between 1978 and 1980, he was the agricultural minister in Marri Chenna Reddy's ministry. Rao joined the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in 1983, a few months after popular actor N.T. Rama Rao established the party.
Rao was elected to the Rajya Sabha by the TDP. He was also a member of the TDP's politburo, the party's highest decision-making body. Since 2004, he has not been involved in politics.
N. Chandrababu Naidu, the TDP's president and former Chief Minister, expressed sorrow over Venkata Rao's death. In his long and idealistic political career, Venkata Rao was regarded by Naidu as a fatherly figure in Andhra Pradesh politics who served as a minister and in several other positions.
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