After being in a political wilderness, the Nara and Nandamuri families are back in the limelight. Part of the family tree of former chief minister N.T. Rama Rao (NTR), they are very prominent in Andhra Pradesh politics.
The latest addition to this political lineup – M. Sri Bharath, elected to Lok Sabha from Visakhapatnam – is the younger son-in-law of Hindupur MLA Nandamuri Balakrishna.
After NTR founded Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in 1982 and the subsequent victory in the Assembly elections a year later with a massive mandate, his family members began appearing in public life.
Chandrababu Naidu stands out
Among the members of the Nara-Nandamuri family, Chandrababu Naidu stands out by becoming the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh three times and is poised to take over for a fourth time, having defeated the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) in the elections.
Even before forming the TDP, NTR gave his daughter Nara Bhuvaneswari’s hand in marriage to Chandrababu Naidu in 1981.
After NTR founded his party, Naidu became a prominent leader in the TDP and eventually became the chief minister in 1995.
NTR’s another daughter D. Purandeswari who joined the Congress in 2004 became a Union minister in the Manmohan Singh Cabinet when UPA-II came to power for the second time in 2009.
She was the minister of state for human resources and later for commerce. Singh used to praise her communication skills and talent at work.
After the rout of Congress following the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, she joined the BJP and is now the president of the party’s Andhra Pradesh unit. She won the election to Lok Sabha on a BJP ticket from Rajahmundry in the recently concluded polls.
Chandrababu Naidu’s son, Nara Lokesh, began his political career as the TDP general secretary in 2014.
He was taken into the legislative council in 2017 and was a minister for Panchayat Raj and IT. His wife Brahmani — daughter of Balakrishna — appears in public life now and then.
At present, there are three MLAs in the Assembly — Chandrababu Naidu, Lokesh and Balakrishna, and two MPs — Daggubati Purndeswari and Sri Bharath.
This article was originally published on SouthFirst.
