Know Your MLA: Master of all trades

Warangal: The rise of KR Nagaraju from the rank of sub-inspector to the heights of police commissioner was riddled with perils, often life-threatening. However, as an MLA, it’s a different ball game altogether for the retired IPS officer. People in Wardhannapet constituency are expecting much better deeds from Nagaraju than what his predecessor Aroori Ramesh had done for them.

Straight after his retirement, 61-year-old Nagaraju forayed into politics successfully. Several eyebrows were raised when the TPCC chief Revanth Reddy decided to field the political novice Nagaraju against a seasoned politician like Aroori Ramesh from the Wardhannapet (SC Reserved) constituency. Nagaraju proved his critics wrong by winning with a comfortable margin of 19,458 votes.

For the better part of his career, Nagaraju worked in the Naxal hotbed of Warangal and Khammam. Nagaraju, who became a sub-inspector in 1989, never backed down from challenges on his duty front. At the peak of the Naxal insurgency, for his higher-ups, he was the go-to guy when in need. The 70-odd landmines planted in the Bhupalpally-Azamnagar hilly stretch by the Naxals targeting Nagaraju indicate how perilous his job was in the 1990s.

Son of an armed constable K Karpan, Nagaraju initially wanted to become a doctor. A sportsperson right from his childhood, the well-built Nagaraju was even selected for hockey senior nationals. He last served as Commissioner of Police in Nizamabad before getting back to his native Laxmipuram, a suburb of Warangal.