Kona Prabhakara Rao (10 July 1916 – 20 October 1990) was an Indian politician. He was a member of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

party and was elected four times as

Member of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. S ...

From Bapatla (Assembly constituency).

Early life and education

Kona Prabhakar Rao was born in Bapatla,

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

, into a wealthy Telugu Niyogi Brahmin family in Bapatla. He did most of his schooling in Bapatla. At the age of 16, Rao conducted a boycott of schools when late

Motilal Nehru Motilal Nehru (6 May 1861 – 6 February 1931) was an Indian lawyer, activist and politician belonging to the Indian National Congress. He also served as the Congress President twice, 1919–1920 and 1928–1929. He was a patriarch of the Neh ...

died. He was a social and political worker and took active part in the

Salt Satyagraha The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, Dandi March and the Dandi Satyagraha, was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India led by Mahatma Gandhi. The twenty-four day march lasted from 12 March to 6 April 1930 as a d ...

movement and

Quit India Movement The Quit India Movement, also known as the August Kranti Movement, was a movement launched at the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee by Mahatma Gandhi on 8th August 1942, during World War II, demanding an end to British rule in ...

of 1942. In Bapatla he organised a youth league and promoted the use of khadi. A keen sportsman, Rao was tennis champion of the

Bombay University The University of Mumbai is a collegiate, state-owned, public research university in Mumbai. The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. Ratan Tata is the appointed h ...

in 1938. He organised the Shivaji Vyayam Mandali at Bapatla and some other places. He was a wrestler and badminton champion during his college days at Pune. He graduated from the

Loyola College, Madras Loyola College is a private Catholic higher education institution run by the Society of Jesus in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It was founded in 1925 by the French Jesuit priest, Francis Bertram, along with other European Jesuits. It is an ...

and completed his law degree from the ILS Law College, Pune. He started practice as an Advocate in Bapatla in the composite Madras State in 1940. Rao was actively associated with a large number of cultural organisations. He had in his earlier days produced, acted and directed many

Telugu film Telugu cinema, also known as Tollywood, is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Telugu language, widely spoken in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Telugu cinema is based in Film Nagar, ...

s, notable among them being ''Mangalasutra'', '' Niraparadhi'' (1951), '' Nirdoshi'', '' Drohi'' and ''Soudamini''.

Career

He was elected to the

Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly or Andhra Pradesh Śāsana Sabha is the lower house of the Andhra Pradesh Legislature. The Legislative Assembly consists of 175 members which are elected by adult universal suffrage under the first-p ...

for the first time in 1967 and later in 1972 and 1978. He was Speaker of the Assembly during 1980-81. He was President of the APCC(I). He was also Minister of Finance and Planning during the Chief Ministership of

Bhavanam Venkatarami Reddy Bhavanam Venkatrami Reddy (18 July 1931 – 7 April 2002) was the chief minister of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh (AP) between February 1982 and September 1982. He was a member of the Congress party and served as cabinet minister in various ...

and

Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy (16 August 1920 – 27 September 2001) served as the chief minister of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh in 1983 and then from 1992 to 1994. Reddy was a member of the Indian National Congress and was elected ...

. Rao was appointed Governor of the union territory of

Pondicherry Pondicherry (), now known as Puducherry ( French: Pondichéry ʊdʊˈtʃɛɹi(listen), on-dicherry, is the capital and the most populous city of the Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the sout ...

on 2 September 1983 and he continued in that post until June 1984. On 17 June 1984 he assumed the office of the

Governor of Sikkim The governor of Sikkim is the head of state of the Indian state of Sikkim. The governor is the representative of the president of India in the state and is the nominal head of the state's executive power. This is a list of the governors of S ...

, and then succeeded Air Chief Marshal

I. H. Latif Air Chief Marshal Idris Hasan Latif, PVSM (9 June 1923 – 30 April 2018) was a former air officer in the Indian Air Force. He served as the 10th Chief of Air Staff (CAS) of the Indian Air Force (IAF) from 1978 to 1981. After retiring from the ...

, as the Governor of Maharashtra, on 30 May 1985. In the area of education as the founder of the Bapatla Education Society he ensured several institutions evolved in his home town. He was responsible for bringing Krishna River water to the town of Bapatla, which ensured a lot of progression in the area of agriculture which was a prominent means of living for the town. He died on 20 October 1990, at National Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad due to cardio-respiratory failure. His son Kona Raghupathi was elected as MLA for Bapatla constituency.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rao, Kona Prabhakara 1916 births 1990 deaths Telugu politicians People from Guntur district Indian National Congress politicians from Andhra Pradesh Members of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly Speakers of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly Governors of Sikkim Governors of Maharashtra