One of the biggest mass leaders of recent times, former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YSR Reddy was the master of electoral politics. Like a seasoned doctor, YSR truly understood the pulse of the people.
He was catapulted to prominence in state politics after his padyatra during the campaign for the 2004 Assembly elections which eventually led to the Congress coming to power in the state after a long time.
Today, on his father's birth anniversary, the first since YSR's death in a helicopter crash last year, his son Jagan begins his Odarpu yatra, to honour his father's memory, from Srikakulam.
Here's a look back at the life and times of a mass leader.
Dr. Yeduguri Sandinti Rajasekhara Reddy, popularly known as YSR, was born on July 8, 1949, in Pulivendula in the Rayalaseema region.
His father, Y S Raja Reddy, was a dynamic mass leader and YSR had an interest in politics from the time that he was a student.
YSR did his schooling in Balapanur and Bellary, where his father worked.
He got a medical degree from the Mahadevappa Rampure Medical College, Gulbarga University, Karnataka and completed his House Surgeonship at S.V. Medical College, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh. At medical college YSR was president of the Student's Union and was elected leader of the House Surgeon's Association in SV Medical College.
After completing his MBBS, YSR served as the Medical Officer at the Jammalamadugu Mission Hospital for a while. In 1973, he established a charitable hospital named after his father at Pulivendula.
YSR entered active politics in 1978 and was elected five times to the state Assembly. And four times to the Lok Sabha. He never lost an election. During his 25-year-long political career, YSR was president of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) twice, he held several important portfolios as minister and from 1999 to 2004, served as Leader of the Opposition in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly.
A born leader, YSR as a young MLA rallied Congress MLAs to lead hunger strikes and yatras to highlight important local issues. Then, in 2003, he led a 1400-km and three-month long padyatra covering all backward areas in the state to connect with the people and understand how they lived. That was a turning point.
A year later he led his party to victory in the state elections and became Chief Minister. YSR burst onto the national stage with his padyatra during the campaign for the 2004 Assembly elections. Many saw him as the centerpiece of the Congress strategy against the all-powerful TDP.
Megastar Chiranjeevi decided to throw his weight into the last elections and many doubted what YSR would accomplish for the Congress. But in his campaign, YSR claimed he was a development man and fought on the back of populist schemes: irrigation, pensions, schemes for women. The YSR magic worked, and his party's victory was seen as hard evidence of a grassroots politician whose charisma trounced the controversy surrounding him.
In 2009, he broke an Andhra Pradesh jinx to win again, the only chief minister of the state to have come back to power after being in office for a full term.
YSR expanded his political empire from Andhra Pradesh's feudal Reddy heartland. He won 4 Lok Sabha and 4 Assembly elections from Kadappa. He was credited publicly and often with being a leader with a huge mass base, a rarity in the Congress party. He was particularly popular for his welfare schemes, which found no match around the country.
YRS was killed after the helicopter in which he was travelling crash-landed atop the Rudrakonda hill in the Nallamalla range, in September last year. The chopper carrying the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, his Principal Secretary P Subramanyam, Chief Security Officer ASC Wesley, pilot Group Captain S K Bhatia and co-pilot M S Reddy, went off the radar screens amid bad weather and incessant rains.
YSR's body was found along with four others atop the Rudrakonda hill. Commandos reached his helicopter 24 hours after it crashed.
The helicopter went missing after it lost contact with the Air Traffic Control (ATC) in Chennai - an hour after it took off from the Begumpet Airport in Hyderabad.
Thousands of people converged at the Idupulapaya Estate to bid a final farewell to the man who had touched them in one way or the other. A sea of humanity surrounded the burial site to catch a glimpse of YSR Reddy.
Supporters of deceased Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy paid their last tribute to the departed leader during his funeral procession in Hyderabad.
A supporter (C) breaks into tears in front of a poster of YSR Reddy at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium in Hyderabad.
