Hyderabad: Madhavaneni Raghunandan Rao, 52, who delivered a rare defeat to TRS in the Dubbak election on Tuesday, has a more interesting background than many politicians.
He began his career as a news contributor to a vernacular newspaper, but became on the Telangana Rashtra Sabha Politburo and also represented MIM President Asaduddin Owaisi in court.
In 2001, Raghunandan Rao entered politics by joining the newly formed Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS). He was active in the Telangana statehood movement under the leadership of TRS President K. Chandrashekar Rao, and was selected to the TRS Politburo.
Raghunandan Rao was suspended from TRS on allegations of meeting with Telugu Desam chief N. Chandrababu Naidu in May 2013. He joined the BJP and participated in the 2014 and 2018 Dubbak Assembly elections, as well as the Medak elections for Lok Sabha of 2019.
Raghunandan Rao was born in March 1968 in the old Medak district and earned his BA from Siddipet Degree College. He later completed his LLB from the University of Osmania and began practicing law.
Interestingly, Raghunandan Rao in 2013, when he was the district president of TRS Medak, transferred the district director and the Court of Sessions to request bail for Owaisi. This move by Rao at the time was significant as the TRS has strongly opposed the MIM for its position against Telangana’s statehood.
Bail was in a pending case against Asaduddin Owaisi, his brother Asaduddin and 20 others for their alleged involvement in obstructing the collector and other officials who were allegedly demolishing a mosque in Muttangi. Raghunandan Rao managed to obtain bail for the head of the MIM. The case later ended in acquittal.
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