Life history of Neelam Sanjiva Reddy

Sri Neelam Sanjiva Reddy was the sixth President of India. Born in a peasant family at Illuri village in the Anantapur District of Andhra Pradesh on May 19, 1913.

Sri Sanjiva Reddy had his early education at the Theosophical High School at Adyar in Madras and later joined the Arts College at Anantapur.

In 1931 he gave up his studies and took part in the freedom movement. At the age of 25, he was elected Secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Provincial Congress Committee and remained in that office for 10 years. 

Shri Sanjiva Reddy married Shrimati Nagarathnamma on June 8, 1935.

He was in prison for a greater part of the period 1940-1945. In 1946 he was elected to the Madras Legislaltive Assembly and became the Secretary of the Madras Congress Legislature Party the following year. In 1947, he became a Member of the Indian Constitutent Assembly.

In 1951, he became the president of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee.

In 1952, he was elected Member of the Rajya Sabha. In 1953, he became the deputy chief minister in the Cabinet of the T. Prakasam and he was the Leader of the Congress Legislature Party.

He was again elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1955 and became Deputy Chief Minister in B. Gopala Reddi's cabinet.

He became the first Chief Minister to the new State of Andhra Pradesh in October, 1956. In 1959,

he resigned the Chief Ministership to take over the Presidentship of the Indian National Congress. In March, 1962, he again became the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.

In February 1964, he voluntarily resigned the office of Chief Minister.On June 9, 1964, he was appointed a Member of the Union Cabinet formed by Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri and took over the portfolio of Steel and Mines. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in November, 1964.

Reddy was Union Minister of Transport, Civil Aviation, Shipping and Tourism from January 1966 to March 1967 in the Cabinet formed by Indira Gandhi.

He was elected Speaker of the Lok Sabha on March 17, 1967, an office that won him unprecedented acclaim and admiration. After 1969, Shri Reddy devoted his time to agriculture. In March 1977, he fought the Lok Sabha election from Nandyal constituency in Andhra Pradesh as a Janata Party candidate. He was the only non-Congress candidate to get elected from Andhra Pradesh.

Sixth President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, who was directly elected to the post from Lok Sabha Speakership, had created many records. In fact, he was Speaker twice — in 1967 and in 1977.

 

Sanjiva Reddy was not only the first President elected during the non-Congress Janata regime in July 1977, but was also the only person to get elected unopposed, after being unanimously sponsored by all parties, including the Congress alliance. The poll was held just a few months after the Emergency was lifted.

Moreover, he was the youngest to occupy Rashtrapati Bhavan — he was barely 65 years of age when he took charge. R. Venkataraman and K.R. Narayanan were the oldest — they were around 77 years when they assumed office. Rajendra Prasad and Giani Zail Singh assumed office when they were 66. Fakhruddhi Ali Ahmed was 69 when he entered Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Zakir Hussain was 70 years, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam 71, Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan and Shankar Dayal Sharma 74, V.V. Giri 75 and present President Pratibha Patil 73 years when they took charge.

Another interesting record of Sanjiva Reddy is that he was the only serious contender for the post of President, who contested twice. He fought against Giri in August 1969 and in the 1977 election.

Sanjiva Reddy, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Hindupur in Andhra Pradesh, was elected as Speaker on March 17, 1967. He resigned from the post on July 19, 1969 to contest the Presidential election on the basis of his nomination as a nominee of the Congress filed by Indira Gandhi. It is alleged that after filing this nomination, Indira Gandhi subsequently organised his defeat in the election by “unethical means.”

He was away from politics for some time only to re-enter it on May 1, 1975. He fought the March 1977 Lok Sabha polls from Nandyal and was the only one to get elected from the State as a non-Congress candidate then.

He assumed office as Lok Sabha Speaker on March 26, 1977, only to resign a few months later to enter the Presidential poll fray.

Reddy was succeeded as president by Giani Zail Singh, who was sworn in on 25 July 1982. In his farewell address to the nation, Reddy criticised the failure of successive governments in improving the lives of the Indian masses and called for the emergence of a strong political opposition to prevent governmental misrule.

Following his presidential term, the then Chief Minister of Karnataka Ramakrishna Hegde invited Reddy to settle down in Bangalore but he chose to retire to his farm in Anantapur.

He died of pneumonia in Bangalore on 1st June 1996 at the age of 83. 

His samadhi is at Kalpally Burial Ground, Bangalore.The Parliament mourned Reddy's death on 11 June 1996 and members cutting across party lines paid him tribute and recalled his contributions to the nation and the House.Reddy authored a book, Without Fear or Favour: Reminiscences and Reflections of a President, published in 1989.