#ThrowbackThursday #MemoriesofYSR #AManoftheMasses

Remembering YSR from aggressive politician to Mass leader: Dr. Yeduguti Sandinti Rajashekhara Reddy, who was popularly known as YSR, died on September 2, 2009, in Pulivendula in the Rayalaseema region.

From aggressive politicians, he has become one of the biggest mas leaders of recent times, former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YSR Reddy was the master of electoral politics. He mastered so well in politics that he could sense his people's problems very well & he always worked hard for his people.

YSR showed interest in politics when he was a student and he truly shorts into the limelight after winning the 2004 election to become the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.

The whole Andhra Pradesh shook after his death. On September 2, 2009, YSR died in a helicopter crash in a rather shocking sequence of events. on his 62nd birth anniversary, here's a look back at the life and times of the mass leader.

Dr. Yeduguri Sandinti Rajashekher Reddy, Popularly Known as YSR, was born on July 8, 1949, in Pulivendula in Rayalaseema region.

YSR did his schooling in Balapanur and Bellary, where his father worked.

He finished his MBBS and got a Medical degree from Mahadevappa Rampure Medical College, Gulbarga University, Karnataka and completed his House surgeon at S.V. Medical College, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh.

At Medical College YSR was the President of the Student's Union and was elected leader of the House Surgeon's Association in SV Medical College.

After completing his MBBS, YSR served at the Medical officer at the Jammalamadugu Mission Hospital for a while. In 1973, he established a charitable hospital named after his father in pulivendula.

YSR entered active politics in 1978 he was then elected 5 times to the state Assembly. And 4 times to the Lok Sabha. But he never lost a single election that was his mission.

During his 25 long political careers, YSR was the President of Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee(APCC) twice, he had held several important portfolios as a minister and from 1999 to 2004, he served as a leader of the opposition in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly.

A young leader is born, YSR as a young MLA he rallied Congress MLA'S to lead hunger strikes and yatras to highlight important local issues. Then later in 2003, he led a 1400km and 3 months long padayatra covering all the backward areas in the state to connect with the people and understand how they lived. that was a turning point.

His party had one victory in state elections after a year and YSR had become the Chief Minister. People saw YSR as the Centrepiece of the Congress strategy against the all-powerful TDP.

In 2009, he broke an Andhrapradesh Jinx to win again, the only chief minister to have come back to power being in office for a full term.

On May 20, 2009, YSR takes Oath as the chief minister at the Lal Bahadur Stadium in Hyderabad.

YSR took a big step of expanding his political empire. Later he won 4 Lok Sabha and 4 Assembly Elections from Kadappa. He was credited publicly and often with a big leader with huge masses, a rarity in the Congress party.

YSR started giving out Welfare schemes to his people, and he was popular for that. His schemes could not match any scheme in the country.

In 2006, US president George W Bush visited fiber product exhibition at Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University in Hyderabad, This University has been partnered with Cornell University in a US Agency for International Development sponsored program which is designed to stimulate India's agricultural development.

YSR was was always a development man and always fought on the back of the populist schemes: irrigation, pensions, schemes for women. Though Actor Chiranjeevi tried his leg in the last elections nothing worked. What YSR had to accomplish he did it.

YSR's magic always works for him, and his party's victory was seen as hard evidence of a grassroots politician whose charisma trounced the controversy surrounding him.

The great leader YSR was killed after the helicopter in which he was traveling crash-landed atop the Rundrakonda hill in the Nallamalla range, in September last year.

The chopper carrying the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, his principal Secretary P.Subramanyam, Chief Security Officer ASC Wesley, Pilot Group Captain S K Bhatia, and co-pilot M S Reddy, went off the radar screens amid bad weather and incessant rains.

YSR's body was found along with four others atop the Rudrakonda hill. Commandos reached his helicopter after it crashed.

The helicopter went missing after it lost contact with the Air Traffic Control in Chennai an hour it took off from the Begumpet Airport in Hyderabad.

The 225 square kilometer area was divided into 7 sectors and one chopper was assigned to each of these sectors. The search operations also focused on water bodies like the Krishna River and the streams and Rivulets in the Forest.

The man who touched millions of hearts, who was called a Man of Masses converged at the Idupulapaya Estate to bid a final Farewell. A sea of humanity surrounded the burial site to catch a glimpse of YSR Reddy.