Know Your MLA: Konathala Ramakrishna - A leader with a firm grip over Visakha, Anakapalli districts

Anakapalli: No matter which party he teams up with, Konathala Ramakrishna is known to carve a special position for himself.

Although he was never after any posts, the party high command often recognised his capabilities and assigned key responsibilities to him.

Back in 1989, the senior politician was elected as a member of the 9th Lok Sabha by contesting from Anakapalli and won against P Appala Narasimham of TDP by a thin margin of just nine votes. Known for being a gentle and capable leader, Ramakrishna gained special recognition both in Visakhapatnam and Anakapalli districts.

After taking a break from active politics for a while, he joined the Jana Sena Party (JSP) before the 2024 general elections, contested from Anakapalli constituency as a candidate of the party and won with a huge majority.

Born on January 4, 1957 in Anakapalli town, Konathala Ramakrishna’s education was completed in Anakapalli Merchants Association Lingamurthy College in Anakapalli. He did his M.Com at Andhra University and served as an agriculturist, businessman, industrialist, politician, social worker and educationist.

His political career started with the Congress party, as he joined the party in 1982 and contested as an MP candidate in 1989 and won with the lowest record majority.

In 1991, he was elected as the member of the 10th Lok Sabha from Anakapalli constituency. In 1996 Chintakayala Ayyanna Patrudu emerged victorious against Ramakrishna with a majority of 50,172 votes.

In 1999, Ramakrishna contested from the Anakapalli Assembly constituency on behalf of the Congress party and was defeated by TDP candidate Dadi Veerabhadra Rao. Back in 2004, he was elected as an MLA with a margin of 17,000 votes against the same candidate Veerabhadra Rao.

Ramakrishna contested from Congress in 2009. Back then, Ganta Srinivasa Rao contested from the Praja Rajyam Party and Dadi Veerabhadra Rao from TDP. In the triangular fight, Ganta Srinivasa Rao won in the 2009 polls.

Earlier, Ramakrishna served as the minister for commercial taxes in Y S Rajasekhara Reddy’s Cabinet. Ramakrishna, who was close to Rajasekhara Reddy, joined YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress Party after YSR’s death. He was in-charge of Visakhapatnam during the 2014 general elections.

When Y S Vijayamma contested as Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha candidate, Konthala Ramakrishna campaigned for her. He was the key leader for the YSRCP in the 2014 elections. As he did not get due priority in the YSR Congress Party in the subsequent years, he took a break from politics and eventually joined Jana Sena ahead of the 2024 elections.

Although his followers expected a berth for him in the alliance government Cabinet, he could not get any.