Ramlu Komireddi

Ramlu Komireddi is a senior lawyer, journalist and a left-leaning liberal politician in South India.

Education

Komireddi attended City College, Hyderabad, and studied law at Law College, Osmania University, and journalism (BCJ) at the same University, emerging as one of the foremost and most successful lawyers of his generation.

Politics: 1970s — present

An active participant in student politics, Komireddi was elected the students' General Secretary of Osmania University, one of the most prestigious positions in Indian student politics, when he was studying law there. After leaving University, he moved to Delhi to join Ram Jethmalani, whose political campaigns and schedules he managed. Eventually, despite his active distaste for the Bharatiya Janata Party (B.J.P.) and its ideology, which he perceived as "divisive," he reluctantly joined the party at Jethmalani's behest. ["Raucous and Rambling, yet Reliable: The Indian Parliamentary Democracy," published by the APLA, 2006.] In 1978, in what was to be the first of many attempts, Komireddi ran for the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly as a B.J.P. candidate and lost. In 1985, when his popularity was at an all time high, the B.J.P. refused to back his candidature and, instead, endorsed Ch. Vidyasagar Rao. L.K. Advani reportedly told Jethmalani that he did not back Komireddi because he felt Komireddi was "too liberal." As a gesture of solidarity to Komireddi, and as an act of protest against Advani's decision, Jathmalani resigned from the party. [Ibid.]

Komireddi went ahead and contested the 1985 election from Metpalli as an independent, winning 22.31 percent of the vote to Vidyasagar Rao's 22.88 percent. It was a narrow victory for Rao, an outsider, and a second defeat for Komireddi, a native of Metpalli. Reacting to reports of malfeasance in the ballot-counting, Komireddi sought, and was promptly denied, a recount, and consequently, he took the matter to the Supreme Court of India, which upheld the election. [Komireddi Ramuloo v. Chennemaneni Vidyasagar Rao and others—April 6, 1990; Citation AIR 1990 SC 1352.] Disillusioned by the entire saga, Komireddi returned to legal practice, soon establishing himself as one of the most successful lawyers in Andhra Pradesh. Eventually, he joined the Congress Party, within which he was promoted to various important, although not very powerful, positions at state-level.

In 1998, his wife, Jyoti Devi, was chosen by the Congress to contest the bye-election in Metpalli, after the seat fell vacant following Vidyasagar Rao's election to the Lok Sabha the same year. Of the four bye-elections held that year, Devi's was the only Congress victory. Devi soon established herself as a sedulous legislator and an astute politician, endearing herself to Sonia Gandhi and, resultantly, securing many positions of power within the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee. [http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2000/12/29/stories/0429201o.htm] [http://www.tribuneindia.com/1999/99may23/nation.htm] .

In 2004's general elections, Komireddi was denied Congress's endorsement, and when he declared that he would run as an independent, in defiance of Congress's alliance with a regional party, he was expelled from the party for six years. [http://www.hindu.com/2004/03/30/stories/2004033009830300.htm.] He ran as a Janata Party candidate, but used Sonia Gandhi's posters and the Congress's manifesto, claiming that, ideologically, he was inseparable from the Congress and, too, that Sonia Gandhi was the best hope for India. He was elected to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly with a majority of over five thousand votes. [http://www.eci.gov.in/ElectionAnalysis/AE/S01/partycomp258.htm.] Within the House, he was elected to the Floor Leadership of the Janata Party; his expulsion from Congress was eventually annulled and he was in 2004 made an "associate member" of its legislative wing. Among the non-ministerial members, Komireddi's perhaps is the most enviable position within the House: he enjoys virtually all the benefits of being a Congress member, including invitations to the Congress Legislative Party's meetings where he is known to air his views volubly, while retaining the enviable independence of a Floor Leader. Generally, though, he has always used his bully pulpit to strongly defend the Chief Minister Y.S. Rajashekhara Reddy and attack the principal Opposition. He is seen as a trusted lieutenant of the Chief Minister and is largely expected to be promoted within the House.

Planned book

He has declared that he has been working on a book about India and its politics, which will also be his partial-autobiography. Ram Jethmalani will be contributing an expansive preface to the book.

Controversy

In March 2008, he appeared personally in the A.P. High Court to answer charges of Contempt. He has since gained reputation as a left-wing radical. [http://www.andhracafe.com/index.php?m=show&id=32526]

Notes

External links

* [http://www.apassemblylive.com/profile.asp?183 Ramlu Komireddi's webpage on Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly's site]