Who is Nandamuri Harikrishna?

Hyderabad, Aug 29: Nandamuri Harikrishna, the eldest son of late Andhra Pradesh CM NT Ramarao, died in an accident on Wednesday. Harikrishna (61), who held cabinet berth in Chandrababu Naidu's government, played a vital role in Chandrababu Naidu's political rise.

In a political uprising in Andhra Pradesh politics, Nandamuri Harikrishna with Daggubati Venkateshwar Rao, NTR's eldest son-in-law, joined hands with Chandrababu Naidu to dethrone NT Ramarao. Naidu had claimed that the reason for overthrowing NTR was that the latter was planning to hand over the reins of the party to his second wife Lakshmi Parvathi and felt that the party was in danger of disintegrating under her rule.

However, Harikrishna fell out with Chandrababu Naidu. Harikrishna had been a politburo member of the TDP for a long time but was not attending any of the meetings.

During Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections, Harikrishna had asserted that party president N. Chandrababu Naidu has used his actor brother Balakrishna against him. In an interview with The Hindu, Harikrishna said that he was hopeful that the party would at least field him from one of the Assembly constituencies in Krishna district. "But the party dashed my hopes," he said.

Harikrishna was born to Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao and Nandamuri Basava Ramatarakam on 2nd September 1956. He is survived by Shrimati Nandamuri Lakshmi Kumari, one daughter and two two sons. Kalyan Ram (Son), Nandamuri Suhasini (Daughter) and NTR Jr. (Son). Harikrishna's eldest son Janaki Ram died in road accident in December 2014.

Harikrishna 's political career:

• 1996-99 Member, Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly
• Sept. 1995-Feb. 1996 Cabinet Minister for Road Transport, Government of Andhra Pradesh
• April 2008 Elected to Rajya Sabha
• Aug. 2008-May 2009 Member, Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests
• Aug.-Oct. 2009 Member, Committee on Water Resources
• Oct. 2009 onwards Member, Committee on Industry