Chennamaneni Vidyasagar Rao, appointed the new governor of Maharashtra Tuesday, is one of the well-known faces of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Telangana.Hailing from Karimnagar district, he served as the minister of state for home in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.The 73-year-old, who uses his Ch. as his first initial, was also the BJP president in united Andhra Pradesh and was elected to the Lok Sabha twice from Karimnagar.Vidyasagar Rao was defeated in the 2014 general election. He finished a poor third. B. Vinod Kumar of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) was elected while Ponnam Prabhakar of Congress stood second.After schooling in his native district and intermediate in Hyderabad, he did his graduation in science from Maharashtra. He also did LLB from Osmania University in Hyderabad and was practicing lawyer before he became active in then Jan Sangh.
He contested from Karimnagar parliamentary constituency for the first time in 1980 but as Janata Party candidate but was unsuccessful.Vidyasagar Rao was elected thrice to Andhra Pradesh assembly on BJP ticket. He performed a hat-trick by successively winning the 1985, 1989, and 1994 elections from Metpally constituency in Karimnagar district. He was also the leader of the BJP in the assembly.Vidyasagar Rao entered the Lok Sabha by winning the 1998 elections by a majority of over 95,000 votes. He retained the seat in 1999, though with a reduced margin of 19,000 votes.In 2004, the BJP leader lost the polls at the hands of TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
Suave and soft-spoken, Vidyasagar Rao has been playing an active role in the movement for separate Telangana state over the last few years.His elder brother Ch Rajeshwara Rao is a former Communist leader and another brother Ch Hanumantha Rao is the chancellor of Hyderabad Central University.Meanwhile, celebrations broke out in his native district and at the BJP office in Hyderabad following his appointment as the governor of Maharashtra.BJP leaders felicitated Vidyasagar Rao at the party headquarters here. Speaking on the occasion, he said he would discharge his duties as the governor in accordance with the constitution.G. Kishan Reddy, president of BJP unit of Telangana, hailed his appointment. He said this was yet another proof that an ordinary party worker can rise to the top post.