The Telugu Desam Party has suffered a major setback in the death of Nandamuri Harikrishna, the son of party founder N.T. Rama Rao, who has been there since its inception on March 29, 1982.
Harikrishna was privy to several developments relating to the newly founded party along with his father NTR ever since he took the steering of the Chaitanya Ratham, the iconic vehicle in which NTR conducted a whirlwind tour of the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh in nine months and stormed to power in January next year. However, his entry into active politics came almost a dozen years later.
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His chequered political career started after his being nominated as the TDP’s candidate for the by-election to Hindupur Assembly constituency in 1996. The seat fell vacant after the death of NTR on January 20, 1996 after a series of political developments which saw shift of power centre in the State. NTR’s son-in-law and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu took over the reins of the party as well as the government from NTR in the developments often referred to as ‘August crisis’ by the party insiders.
Harikrishna, who was on Mr. Naidu’s side during the party’s internal crisis, was fielded in place of NTR and he won with a landslide of 62,000 votes. He was immediately inducted into the State Cabinet as Transport Minister, but did not continue in the post for full term as his relation with Mr. Naidu soured . Harikrishna came out of the TDP to launch his own party Anna Telugu Desam in 1998. The new party, however, faced a debacle in the 1999 elections with 188 out the 191 candidates it fielded from different constituencies forfeiting deposits. Harikrishna himself managed to secure little over 11,000 votes from the Gudivada constituency where his native Nimmakuru is located.
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After keeping himself away from active politics for a few years, Harikrishna made re-entry into the political scene on being nominated to Rajya Sabha by the TDP. As the pitch for separate Statehood grew louder in the subsequent years, Harikrishna was among the few politicians who openly opposed bifurcation of the Telugu State. In the process, he submitted his resignation to the then Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari in August which was promptly accepted by the Chair.
Since his resignation from the Upper House, Harikrishna stayed away from active public life and made himself busy in the film field, co-starring in a few movies with top heroes of Telugu films and also playing lead in a few others.