Rapolu Ananda Bhaskar (born 15 January 1964) is an Indian journalist turned politician belonging to

Telangana Rashtra Samithi Bharat Rashtra Samithi ( ; BRS), formerly known as Telangana Rashtra Samithi ( TRS), is an Indian political party which is predominantly active in the state of Telangana. It was founded on 27 April 2001 as by K. Chandrashekar Rao, with a singl ...

. He was elected to the

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

from Andhra Pradesh. After

Bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh The Telangana movement refers to a movement for the creation of a separate state, Telangana, from the pre-existing state of Andhra Pradesh in India. The new state corresponds to the Telugu-speaking portions of the erstwhile princely state of H ...

he is allotted to

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian subcontinent, Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India b ...

state by draw of lots.

Early life

He was born in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

in the

Padmashali Padmasali (also spelt as Padmashali, Padmasale) is a Hindu caste residing in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. Their traditional occupation is weaving. Etymology The term ''Padm ...

community but hails from Kodakandla village in

Warangal Warangal () is a city in the Indian state of Telangana and the district headquarters of Warangal district. It is the second largest city in Telangana with a population of 704,570 per 2011 Census of India, and spreading over an . Warangal ser ...

. He has a master's degree in

Sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

from

Osmania University Osmania University is a collegiate public state university located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Mir Osman Ali Khan, the 7th Nizam of Hyderabad in 1918 , He released a farman to establish OSMANIA UNIVERSITY on the day of 28 August 1918. It ...

in 1987.

Career

He worked as a journalist before joining the Congress party in 1994. He worked as a back room manager at Congress party headquarters in AP, Gandhi Bhavan. He was leading the Telangana Congress Monitoring Group for attaining separate statehood for

. He was General Secretary in APCC. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2012. He was handpicked by the ex-Congress party president,

Sonia Gandhi Sonia Gandhi ('' née'' Maino; born 9 December 1946) is an Indian politician. She is the longest serving president of the Indian National Congress, a social democratic political party, which has governed India for most of its post-independ ...

. Later he joined BJP in the presence of BJP national president Amit Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jaitely. He has resigned from

BJP The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

on 26 October 2022 and has joined TRS the same day, in the presence of party's working president KTR.

Personal life

He is married to Saroja and is blessed with a daughter, Priyanka and a son, Adityaram.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhaskar, Rapolu Ananda Indian National Congress politicians 1964 births People from Hanamkonda district Living people Rajya Sabha members from Andhra Pradesh Rajya Sabha members from Telangana