The beloved and the departed DR Yeduguri Sandinti Rajasekhar Reddy (YSR) was the tallest leader National Congress have witnessed in Andhra. He was the second son of Sri Raja Reddy. Dr YSR was born on Eighth of July 1949. He graduated in medical science from M.R.COLLEGE OF GULBARGA He did his House-Surgeoncy in SV Medical college, Tirupathy. After completing MBBS he served as Medical Officer at CSI Campbell Hospital, Jammalamadugu or a brief period.
Dr YSR got married to Smt.Vijayalakshmi in 1971 and is blessed with a son and a daughter. Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, a medical doctor by profession,entered active politics in 1978. He contested in four elections to be a part of the State Legislative Assembly and contested the same number of times to become a Member of the Lower House of Parliament. Dr YSR had won all the elections in which he had participated. He had an eventful 25-year political career which he started as a samithi president and later served as a youth congress leader. At the age of 28, he won the ensuring elections in the year 1978 with the ticket of the Indian National Congress. For a brief period he served as minister in Tanguturi Anjaiah cabinet. Then the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi entrusted the potential leader with as the Pradesh Congress Committee president at the age of 34. For four times Dr. Reddy represented Kadapa constituency as Member of Parliament of India and as a Member of Legislative Assembly of Andhra Pradesh and also same number of times from the Pulivendula constituency. The timeline of his political career unfolds the fact that Dr YSR Reddy had never lost a single election. From the beginning Dr. Reddy had been a champion of reforms with a human face.It is this humane principle that prompted him to take pioneering steps to ensure delivery services,benefits and initiatives for total redressal of the problem.Within an hour of his taking oath as chief minister at Lal Bahadur Stadium in May 2004 heannounced waiver of electricity dues of poor farmers and also Free power for agriculture. Thereafter followed his program to permanently eradicate rural poverty and give assured water to allcultivable lands in the state.The Indira Kranti Patham, Jalayajnam, Indiramma, Bhoo Yajnam, Bhoo Bharati are among theflagship programs of YSR government aimed at eradicating rural and urban poverty, giveland to landless, houses to all and also construct irrigation projects to provide assured water toall lands. Rajiv Swagriha is yet another project that Dr.Y.S.R. launched, to see that every middleincome group family would own a house. Under Arogya Sri programme, a novel healthinsurance scheme is introduced for the BPL families, so that the poor could get surgery treatmentworth upto Rs.2lakhs, while the govt. would pay the total premium.“We are taking external loans for productive purposes and raising internal resources also"says YSR replying to oft sought clarification on how he raised funds for all projects .Dr.Reddy has not relegated social welfare sector in his zeal for key programs like free-power toagriculture, massive Irrigation projects, land distribution to landless and Housing for poor. “TheSC/ST, Minorities and women besides elderly persons get a larger share of the budget than in thepast. We have not forgotten our principle duties to the society- primary health, primaryeducation, in our pursuit for achieving sustainable development of Industry, Agriculture, smallscale sector, IT, BT and textiles" he told the global audience at the ADB meetings in Hyderabad during May 2006.
Dr. Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy died in a helicopter crash in the dense Nallamala forest on 3rd of September, 2009. His unexpected death has been a loss not only to the state of Andhra Pradesh but also to the entire country as a whole. On 2nd of September, 2009, Dr Reddy's helicopter went missing at around 9. 35 a.m. and were broken from all kinds of communication.
Finally the destroyed chopper could be spotted only after 24 hours of the incident. As the wrecked copter was discovered it was found that all the passengers aboard including the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh had died. All the national leaders have expressed deep grievance on the death of the great persona Dr. Y.S Rajsekhar Reddy.
