Meet man of masses, Pajjanna

Hyderabad : During the COVID pandemic that devastated the lives of millions, the not so fortunate people of Secunderabad constituency found themselves in a dire situation. They did not even have money to buy essentials like groceries and milk. Pajjanna did not think twice. He mortgaged the jewellery of his family and provided ration to people of his constituency. We are talking about T Padma Rao Goud, the former minister, former deputy speaker and sitting MLA of Secunderabad.

Popularly known as ‘Pajjanna’ among his constituents, the MLA shares, “During the Coronavirus crisis, I wanted to help my people in some way. I called my wife and daughters-in-law and told them that these are my people and I wanted to come to their rescue but don’t have money. Will you be able to give your ornaments so that they can be mortgaged, I asked them. They all accepted and gave their gold ornaments, which were mortgaged for Rs 1.6 crore. With that amount, I brought food items from Gunj and donated them to about 15,000 families in the constituency.” The MLA said that he knows the pain of the middle class as he was also born in a middle-class family. “People hesitate to ask money even if they are in dire need of it, hence they were helped,” the MLA says humbly.

Born on April 7, 1954 to Eshwaraiah and Ramulamma, Padma Rao started his career from the Congress party in 1977. Padma Rao has been in active politics and served as leader of the Youth Congress. He was a corporator from the Congress party between 1986 to 1991 and was a close associate of senior leader P Janardhan Reddy. He joined the TRS party in 2001 and became a corporator from the Monda Market division. He was the only corporator from TRS then. He had played a key role in Telangana agitation and also held the position of president of Greater Hyderabad.

During the 2004 Assembly elections, he was victorious from the TRS, defeating Talasani Srinivas Yadav of Telugu Desam. In 2009, he changed to Sanathnagar constituency but was defeated by the Congress candidate Marri Sashidhar Reddy.

After the formation of Telangana, in the 2014 general elections, he changed his constituency from Sanathnagar to Secunderabad and got elected, defeating Kuna Venkatesh Goud of TDP and went on to become the first excise minister of Telangana. Padma Rao consolidated his place in the party and also in the constituency and retained the seat in 2018 elections. He went on to become the Deputy Speaker of Telangana Assembly.

He has been the go-to man for the party by being loyal since its inception. When the senior BRS leader was asked to contest Lok Sabha, he had readily accepted the challenge but lost from Secunderabad Lok Sabha segment against G Kishan Reddy of BJP.

Padma Rao has five sons, who are said to be taking over his legacy in the future.