K. Rosiah sworn-in as interim AP Chief Minister

By Gopal Ethiraj, Chennai

CHENNAI, 04 September (asiantribune.com): Senior-most Congress leader and Finance Minister K Rosaiah was on Thursday sworn-in as Chief Minister of Andhrea Pradesh, following the untimely death of incumbent Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy on Wednesday.

At a simple function at Raj Bhavan, the Governor N D Tiwari administered the oath of office and secrecy to Mr. Rosaiah. He was the only one to be sworn in.

After official declaration of death of Reddy was made, Mr. Rosiah was sworn in. After taking the oath, he drove straight to the State Secretariat where he met all the ministers of the Reddy Cabinet.

Kadapa to be ‘YSR district’

The first thing the new Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah did was he convened an emergency Cabinet meeting, which lasted hardly 20 minutes, mourned Dr. Reddy and four others who died in Wednesday’s helicopter crash. It observed a two-minute silence and adopted a resolution to name Kadapa district after Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy as a tribute to the departed leader.
Later, Mr. Rosaiah and his Cabinet colleagues drove to YSR’s residence at Begumpet and paid their respects to the leader. Describing YSR’s death as most shocking, the Cabinet expressed its deep sympathies to all the bereaved members of the families.

YSR’s services recalled

The Cabinet recalled the services of Dr. Reddy, who saved the State from an imminent financial crisis and put it on the highway of development in five years.
His several innovative schemes were placed on record such as Aarogyasri, Pavala Vaddi, Abhaya Hastham, free power to farmers, Indiramma, fee reimbursement to students, loan waiver for various sections and his flagship programme, Jalayagnam under which 81 irrigation projects were taken up at a cost of Rs. 1.5 lakh crore to cover over one crore acres.

“It is hard to believe that the amiable, visionary and workaholic Chief Minister, who was humane in every word and deed, is no more. The void caused by his death can’t be filled,” the Cabinet said.

Rosaiah’s profile

The 77-year-old Rosaiah, kept a low profile and was always a non-controversial leader. A senior-most leader, he has held various portfolios in successive Congress governments since 1979 and served under different Chief Ministers, but mostly the Finance portfolio he got.

He, in fact, has set a record by presenting as many as 15 Budgets to the Assembly.
Born in July 1933 at Vemuru in Guntur district, he is a bachelor of commerce . He belongs to the Vaishya community. Active in politics since his student days, he was a close follower of the late parliamentarian and farmers leader Prof. N G Ranga.

Mr. Rosaiah served as a member of AP Legislative Council in 1968, 1974 and 1980. He became a Minister for Roads and Buildings in 1979 under M. Channa Reddy. He served as a minister in the Cabinets of T Anjaiah, Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy, N Janardhana Reddy and has been serving as a minister in the Y S Rajasekhara Reddy Cabinet since May 2004. He held portfolios like home, health, education and transport.

During 1995 to 97, he was also the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president. He was elected to Lok Sabha from Narsaraopet in 1998.

In 2007, Andhra University had conferred an honorary doctorate on him. Mr. Rosaiah is married to Sivalaxmi and has three sons and a daughter.