NEW DELHI: Congress-I leader P V Narsimha Rao who was elected party president on Wednesday is a law graduate and a Sahitya Ratna a literature laureate.
He has been a member of the Lok Sabha since 1977.
The 70-year-old former foreign minister of India became the “most acceptable” choice for leading the party following hectic consultants among party leaders on party president ship issue as Sonia Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi’s Italian born widow declined the offer.
A former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Rao was general secretary of the undivided Congress in 1975-76 Later he was a cabinet minister in former prime ministers Indira Gandhi’s and then Rajiv Gandhi’s governments.
Born on June 28, 1921 in Karimnagar district of Andhra Pradesh he studied science and law and was awarded the Sahitya Ratna for his literary talent. He also took part in the Vandematram movement aimed at unifying a post-British rule India in the erstwhile state of Hyderabad as general secretary of the Hyderabad state congress committee.
He was a member of Andhra Pradesh assembly from 1955 to “57 and vice president of the state congress committee in 56.”
In 1974 he was appointed Congress general secretary and was elected to Lok Sabha for the first time in ‘77 to be reelected in all following elections in ‘80 ‘84 and ’89.
He was India’s foreign minister from 1980 to 84 in Mrs Gandhi’s cabinet and held charges of the home ministry the defence and human resources and health and family welfare ministry in the Rajiv Gandhi government till 1989.
His published works include translations form Telugu into Hindi and from Marathi into Telugu.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 31, 1991
