Tanguturi Anjaiah

Tanguturi Anjaiah, known as T. Anjaiah alias Ramakrishna Reddy Talla was born on August 16, 1919. His parents belonged to Bhanoor village in Medak district. It was alleged that Anjaiah belonged to a Backward Caste or a Dalit community and had changed his name to Ramakrishna Reddy and got into marital alliances with Reddys to garner the support of the politically powerful Reddy community for his Chief Ministerial tenure.[1][2]

Anjaiah studied at Sultan Bazar high school. He couldn't pursue further education after matriculation due to financial difficulties so he started working at Hyderabad Allwyn for a daily wage of 6 anna (equal to 24 pice).

Anjaiah faced many adversities in his early life which made him a fighter for the cause of social justice.

T. Anjaiah rose from a being worker at Hyderabad Allwyn Limited in Hyderabad to become a trade union leader and later Union Labour Minister.[3]

T. Anjaiah was nominated by the ruling party to replace Marri Chenna Reddy as Chief Minister on 11 October 1980. At the time of nomination, Anjaiah was the union minister of state for Labour. Anjaiah inducted all 15 dissident members of Chenna Reddy cabinet and formed the biggest state ministry the country had ever known.[4] He reduced it to 45 member on advice of center.

As the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, he was known for his accommodating politics.

The two young uprising politicians at that time, Dr. Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy and N. Chandrababu Naidu, gained importance during Anjaiah's term as Chief Minister. A proposal to make NTR a member of the Rajya Sabha did the rounds during this time.[5] Anjaiah was a mentor of P. Janardhan Reddy.

T. Anjaiah faced opponents including some of the ministers in his party after the ruling party lost Municipal elections in Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada. Asked by Mrs. Gandhi to step down on February 13, Anjiah tendered his resignation officially seven days later on February 20, 1982. Anjiah as a leader without followers could evoke unimaginable public sympathy. At his last public appearance as the chief minister, the day before he resigned Anjaiah was cheered by a 30,000-strong crowd. C. Jagannath Rao, who served in his cabinet as a home minister recalls him as, "Whatever one may say against him, his remarkable simplicity endeared him to the people.[6]

Bhavanam Venkatarami Reddy replaced T. Anjaiah on February 24, 1982. Bhavanam Venkatarami Reddy himself was a dissident minister in the Marri Chenna Reddy ministry. T. Anjaiah was elected as Member of Parliament in 1984 from Secundrabad constituency.

T. Anjaiah's earliest act as Chief Minister was to conduct elections to the Panchayati Raj bodies and Municipalities. It was the first time the Sarpanches of the Grama Panchayats and Presidents of Panchayathi Samithis were elected directly by the electorate. It was also in his term that the age of voting was reduced from 21 to 18. Anjaiah received much appreciation for this bold step.[7]

T. Anjaiah offered help to Dr.Prathap C. Reddy to start a hospital in Andhra Pradesh. Anjaiah indeed lived up to his promise by offering 7 acres of land at the heart of the city at Sanjeevaih Park.[8]

T. Anjaiah's Chief Minister relief fund sponsored Hyderabad's first Kidney transplant surgery in 1982.[9] The idea of making the film on Tanguturi Prakasam came to Vijayachander on the motivation by T. Anjaiah in one of his speeches, that Government would provide financial assistance to such ventures. It was under the tenure of T. Anjaiah, Buddha Purnima Project Authority was conceptualized in 1991 including the decision to unveil a gigantic statue of the Buddha on the rock, amid the placid waters of the Hussain Sagar lake.

Lumbini Park in Hyderabad was renamed as T. Anjaiah Lumbini park on his memory in 2006.[10]

Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy unveiled the statue of former Chief Minister late T. Anjaiah at Lumbini Park, opposite Secretariat in 2006.[11]

In 1982, Rajiv Gandhi, then the AICC general secretary, visited Andhra Pradesh on a ‘private’ visit. Anjaiah, who then was the Chief Minister arrived at the Begumpet airport amidst a crowd of about 200 waiting to welcome him, armed with garlands and with his entire cabinet in attendance. An angry Rajiv was disgusted by the pomp and pageantry and the euphoric, dancing crowd beating drums outside the airport. Multiple reports claim that Gandhi, in a moment of anger, publicly referred to Anjaiah as a 'buffoon' and that Anjaiah was in tears when the tirade ended. Back in Delhi, Rajiv was said to have convinced Indira Gandhi to sack Anjaiah. While giving up his post, Anjaiah was reported to have remarked that he came to power by the ‘grace of Madam’ and he was leaving under her orders, but he did not know why he had come or why he had to leave.[12][13][14]

The treatment meted out to Anjaiah was noted to be crucial in the Congress Party tasting its first-ever defeat in Andhra Pradesh in the 1983 Assembly elections. The Telugu Desam Party led by Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao used the perceived insult as an affront to "Telugu vari atmagauravam" (Telugus' self-respect) to woo the voters and won the assembly elections with a thumping majority.[15][16][17]

Anjaiah was married to T. Manemma. They have one son and four daughters. His family lived in Barkatpura Hyderabad until and after few years of his death.

Anjaiah was in public life till his sudden death in 1986. After his death, his wife T. Manemma served as a Secunderabad MP 2 Terms and as the Member of the Legislative Assembly for Musheerabad 2 terms.

• List of Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh

• Biodata of T. Anjaiah at Lok Sabha website