Know your MLA: The horticulturist who scored hat-trick from Parchur

Parchur (Prakasam district) : Yeluri Sambasiva Rao needs no introduction to the TDP fans and followers in the state. The hat-trick MLA has been one of the favourites of the TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu and the best option for the locals of Parchur for more than a decade.

Sambasiva Rao did MSc in Horticulture from Acharya NG Ranga University in 2002 and worked as a horticulture officer in Kothagudem from 2002 to 2007 in the Government of Andhra Pradesh. Moved by the plight of the locals in his native place Parchur, he ventured into politics to bring a change in their lives. He was elected as the MLA in 2014, 2019 and 2024 elections as the TDP candidate at Parchur.

The locals love Sambasiva Rao because he is committed to his word, and fulfils all promises made to them. He developed the Parchur constituency with more than Rs100 crore during his first term, to modernise the Nagarjuna Sagar project canal which provides irrigation water to about 80,000 acre, and the Kommamuru canal that supplies water to about 65,000 acre and another Rs 40 crore to construct 38 lift irrigation projects, to supply water to the last acre.

As MLA, he helped to construct over 100 check dams and more than 1,200 bore wells to help the farmers. He realised the dream of more than 20,000 people, by constructing the NTR Varadhi on Romperu connecting Chinaganjam with Pedaganjam, and laid cement roads for about 425 kilometre in the constituency. He got the confidence of the people, mostly farmers, in the constituency by distributing farm tools, and tractors, and also running a hostel for animals to protect them during the fodder-scarce seasons.

Apart from agriculture, Sambasiva Rao wants his constituency to flourish with industrial development.

He wishes the Chandrababu-led NDA government would encourage the industrialists to establish textile, pharma and ITES industries in the constituency, as the port and airport are nearby, and offer many jobs locally.