Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy

Yeduguri Sandinti Rajasekhara Reddy (8 July 1949 – 2 September 2009), popularly known as YSR, was the Chief Minister of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

He represented the Indian National Congress party. He was elected to the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th Lok Sabha from the Kadapa constituency for four terms and to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly for five terms from the Pulivendula constituency.

In 2003 he undertook a three month long paadayaatra, or walking tour, across several districts in Andhra Pradesh.

He led his party to victory in the next general and assembly elections held in 2004. On September 2, 2009 a helicopter carrying YSR went missing in the Nallamala forest area. On the morning of 3 September, 2009, media agencies reported that the helicopter had been found crashed on top of Rudrakonda Hill, 40 nautical miles from Kurnool. This was later confirmed by the Prime Minister's office and all five persons aboard were pronounced dead at the scene.

Early life

Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy was born at Jammalamadugu Mission Hospital near Pulivendula, Andhra Pradesh to Y. S. Raja Reddy and Jayamma. His schooling was in Bellary, where his father was a contractor for irrigation canal projects. He graduated with a degree in medical science from Mahadevappa Rampure Medical College (MRMC), Gulbarga University, Karnataka and completed his House Surgeonship at S.V. Medical College, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh. He was the elected leader of the House Surgeon's Association at S.V. Medical College, Tirupati.

Career

Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy practiced medicine for sometime in his native Kadapa District. The hospital his father built for him at Pulivendula is still running. His family also built and ran a degree college and a polytechnic college at Pulivendula which was later handed over to the Loyola Group of Educational Institutions. Another junior college at Simhadripuram, a small town in the vicinity of Pulivendula, is run by his family.

Political career

From 1980 to 1983 he was a minister holding important portfolios related to Rural Development, Medical Health and Education. He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Kadapa constituency four times and was elected to the Andhra Pradesh State Assembly six times from Pulivendula constituency. Reddy was the leader of the opposition in the Andhra Pradesh State Assembly for five years. As an MLA he was influential in obtaining water from the Tungabhadra River for the Pulivendula Branch Canal (PBC) and fought for projects like RTPP (Rayalaseema Thermal Power Plant) at Muddanur and Proddatur Milk Foods and its ancillaries.
APCC President

He was elected the President of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) when he was just 33. The held the post twice between 1983–1985 and 1998–2000. As the president of APCC, Reddy rendered yeoman services to the party in regaining the faith and trust of the masses. From 1999 to 2004 he was the Leader of Opposition in the eleventh state assembly

Chief Minister

He was elected as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh by the Legislature party of the Indian National Congress after they later won 185 seats of the Legislative Assembly in the May 2004 elections. He has initiated a variety of programs that influence the Economy of Andhra Pradesh including free power supply for farmers, Jalayagnam — a large-scale program to construct more than 70 pending irrigation projects in the state to improve irrigation facilities to the farmers, and an increase in the minimum support price for rice. Prominent among other programs include the controversial Rajiv Arogya Shree Program — a health insurance scheme for rural masses where the government pays the entire price of any surgery up to 200,000 rupee and does not require people to pay any premium, Pavala Vaddi — a program that provides loans to people at 3% per year so as to encourage them to take up small scale businesses and entrepreneurship primarily targeted at rural women, Indiramma illu — a program for construction of houses for the rural masses by charging a small amount and the government the remaining amount, a Rs 2/kg rice scheme, reimbursement of full college fees for backward sections, reservations for minorities, and a huge loan waiver program for the farmers.

Death

Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy's Bell 430 helicopter went missing on Wednesday, September 2, 2009 at 9:35 am. Begumpet and Shamshabad Air Traffic controllers lost contact with the aircraft at 9:02 am while it was passing through the dense Nallamala forest area.The Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh, P. Ramakanth Reddy, said that bad weather had forced the helicopter off-course. Although the sparsely populated forest area is considered to be stronghold of the outlawed Naxal communist insurgents, the National Security Advisor of India ruled out the possibility of the Naxals bringing down the helicopter.
The state government of Andhra Pradesh and the Government of India launched one of the largest search and rescue operations in the history of the country. The state's security officials mentioned that bad weather was hindering the search and rescue efforts. The Home Ministry of India dispatched 5000 CRPF soldiers for the operationwhile the Defence Ministry of India ordered the Indian Air Force to comb the area using low altitude planes and the Sukhoi-30MKI equipped with thermal imaging system. In addition, police personnel from six districts were involved in the ground search. Andhra Pradesh's anti-Naxal forces were also deployed in the area, owing to their familiarity with the jungle terrain there. Local tribal residents from this part of the state assisted with the search mission. Patrol parties also combed the Krishna river for the remains of the helicopter. ISRO's RISAT-2 satellite was also deployed to search the area, but the 41 high-resolution images of the area were unable to trace the helicopter.
The wreckage of the helicopter was finally spotted by an IAF Dhruv helicopter more than 24 hours after contact was lost with Reddy's Bell 430 helicopter. The Indian Prime Minister's Office confirmed the helicopter's crash on the morning of 3 September and the death of all aboard, including Reddy, his special secretary P. Subrahmanyam, chief security officer A. S. C. Wesley, Group Captain S. K. Bhatia and Captain M. S. Reddy. The Director General of Police said that the bodies of Reddy and others were charred beyond recognition and had to be identified on the basis of clothing.The autopsy of all the bodies was carried out at Kurnool Medical College
Following his tragic death, more than 60 people died either by commuting suicide or with heart attack
Reddy's body was be buried on September 4 at Idupulapai in Kadapa district with full state honors in accordance with Christian rites.
Konjeti Rosaiah is the caretaker Chief Minister; the next Chief Minister is yet to be decided by the Congress.