Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao popularly known as NTR was an actor-director and served as Chief Minister of united Andhra Pradesh for seven years over three terms. A timeline of the legendary actor-politician on his birth anniversary.
May 28, 1923: N.T. Rama Rao is born in Nimmakaru, a village in A.P.’s Krishna district to a farming couple, Nandamuri Lakshmaih and Venkata Ramamma.
May 1943: NTR marries Basava Tarakam.
1949: NTR makes his film debut in Mana Desam (Our nation)
March 29, 1982: NTR launches Telugu Desam Party
1983: TDP wins A.P. Assembly polls winning 199 out of the 294 seats; NTR wins both the seats in which he contested
January 9, 1983: NTR takes over as Chief Minister of A.P., becomes first non-Congress politician to do so in the State.
July 16, 1984: NTR leaves for the U.S. to undergo coronary bypass surgery
August 15, 1984: Governor Ram Lal dismisses NTR Ministry; his Finance Minister Nadendla Bhaskara Rao made Chief Minister.
September 1984: Returning from the U.S., NTR goes on a yatra in his Chaitanya Ratham. Ensuing political turmoil sees Mr. Lal replaced with S.D. Sharma, who immediately reinstates NTR.
1984: Post Indira Gandhi’s assassination, the Congress, led by Rajiv Gandhi, makes huge gains across the country except in Andhra Pradesh where NTR leads the TDP to a landslide victory. With numbers second only to the Congress, the TDP becomes the main opposition party in the Lok Sabha.
1984: NTR calls for fresh elections to the Assembly and wins a second term with a massive mandate.
1985: NTR’s wife Basava Tarakam dies of cancer
December 1989: NTR loses the Assembly elections to Congress. Despite the defeat, NTR establishes himself as one of the tallest figures in national politics. Leads the National Front, a coalition of non-Congress parties.
1993: NTR marries Lakshmi Parvathi, his biographer.
December 1994: NTR returns to power in alliance with the Left parties; scores a hat-trick from Hindupur, his Assembly constituency.
August 23, 1995: A coup led by his son-in-law and Cabinet colleague N. Chandrababu Naidu dislodges NTR from the government and party, nine months after his comeback; NTR’s efforts to regain support of the TDP cadre and the public come a cropper, despite his whirlwind tour around the State with Lakshmi Parvathi by his side.
January 18, 1996: NTR dies of a heart attack aged 72.
2004: Lakshmi Parvathi immerses NTR’s ashes in Srirangapatna, only after the defeat of Chandrababu Naidu in the Assembly elections.
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