‘Ponnam Anna’ loves to be amongst the people

Karimnagar: Coming from a family with no political background, Ponnam Prabhakar started his political career as an NSUI leader and as a dear disciple of former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy and M Satyanarayana Rao (MSR). He rose through the ranks rapidly and is now serving as the State BC Welfare and Transport Minister. His followers affectionately call his ‘Ponnam Anna’, as he is in constant contact with people and is punctual for every programme.

In 1987, Ponnam Prabhakar won the election to Karimnagar SRR Degree College and started his career as a student leader. He served as the district president of NSUI Karimnagar between 1992-98. He was promoted from district president to State president. Later, he worked as the chairman of MarkFed from 2005-09 in the YSR government. He also served as the working president of the Congress Party. In 2009, he got elected to Karimnagar parliamentary seat on a Congress ticket. During his tenure as MP, he established a university in Karimnagar and helped provide a passport centre and train facility to Tirupati.

He is known to be a close aide of Rahul Gandhi, and earned his reputation in the Parliament by speaking out for a separate Telangana. Prabhakar contested from Karimnagar in the last Assembly and lost. This time, he strategically contested from Husnabad, where his social class is dominant, and defeated his nearest rival V Sathish Babu of the BRS by a margin of 19,344 votes.

Ponnam Prabhakar was the youngest MP elected from Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency during 2009-2014. He was one of the leaders of the Telangana movement, who had started his journey as a student activist. The leader of the student movement had fought many battles over the problems of the students.