Sabitha Indra Reddy

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Sabitha Indra Reddy
Minister of Education Government of Telangana
Incumbent
Assumed office 8 September 2019
Minister of Home, Jail, and Disaster Management Government of Andhra Pradesh
In office 2009–2013
Member of Legislative Assembly from Chevella
In office 2000–2009
Minister of Mines and Geology Government of Andhra Pradesh
In office 2004–2009
Member of Legislative Assembly from Maheshwaram
Incumbent
Assumed office 11 December 2018
Personal details
Born	(1963-05-05) 5 May 1963 (age 58) Kota Baspally, Tandur
Nationality	Indian
Political party	Telangana Rashtra Samithi
Other political affiliations	Indian National Congress
Spouse(s)	Late P. Indra Reddy
Children	3
Residence	Hyderabad, India

Patlolla Sabitha Indra Reddy is an Indian politician who is the current Minister of State for Education of Telangana, additionally Member of the Telangana Legislative Assembly from Maheshwaram constituency. She Joined TRS Party in 2019. She became the first woman Home Minister of any Indian Government after the late CM Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy allocated that portfolio to her. She is also the first women minister for Telangana.^[1] She has been a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Andhra Pradesh for two terms from Chevella assembly constituency and two times for Maheshwaram constituency.

Personal life[]

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Sabitha was born on 5 May 1963 at Tandur to G. Mahipal Reddy and Venkatamma. She is eldest of three siblings. She has a younger sister and a brother. She studied till middle school in Tandur and then moved to Hyderabad for higher education, she studied at Bhagya Memorial Girls High School at Chaderghat. She completed her education till B.Sc from Sri Vani Womens degree college, Hyderabad.

She was married to P. Indra Reddy (1954–2000) who was the Home Minister in N. T. Rama Rao's Cabinet. She was married right after her education at a young age of 20 years. The couple has three sons. She met Indra Reddy through a relative when he was the Law College President at Osmania University. Indra Reddy was a very popular leader who carried a cult image in Telangana. After his demise in a road accident, Sabitha a widow at the age of 37 began to foray into politics.

Coincidentally, Sabitha and Indra Reddy both have been Home Ministers for the State of Andhra Pradesh, making it the only couple in India to ever do so. To add on, Sabitha was also inculcated into K. Chandrashekar Rao cabinet as Education Minister for the state of Telangana, a position also held by her husband in the erstwhile state of Andhra Pradesh.

Political career[]

Sabitha held the position of Mines and Geology Minister in the earlier government.^[1] She was the first female Home Minister of a state in the nation.^[2] She is an undefeated four time MLA. She was elected twice from Chevella and twice from Maheshwaram after delimitation.

In 2011, Central Bureau of Investigation arrested V. D. Rajagopal and Y. Srilakshmi, as third and fourth accused respectively in the investigation into illegal mining by Obulapuram Mining Company.^[3][4][5][6] The permission for mining in Anantapur was for captive mining, i.e. the ore mined in that region is to be used in the local steel plant and not to be exported. Srilakshmi is accused of dropping the term "captive mining" in the final order approving a mining license to Obulapuram.

The CBI defended the Home minister saying there was no justification for the official to blame the Minister.^[7] As of April 2013, Sabitha Indra Reddy submitted her resignation letter from the Cabinet after the CBI named her as an accused in the Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy illegal investments case.^[8]

Sabitha in Elections[]

2000 By-elections[]

She was pushed into politics through this elections as her husband had passed away. In this election, she contested on a Congress ticket from Chevella MLA constituency against KLR who is an industrialist and politician. In this election, through her husband's name, the sympathy of his death and her commitment to work for the people she won the election with a whopping 29,909 votes majority.^[9]

2004 General elections[]

This election, she showed her hard-working nature to her constituents. In this election, she beat the TDP candidate by bettering her previous margin from Chevella. This time she won with a majority of 41,585 votes. Consequently, YSR inculcated her into the Cabinet as Minister of Mines and Geology.^[10]

2009 General elections[]

This election happened just after the constituency delimitation. As a result of this, her bastion Chevella constituency was changed to be an SC-reserved constituency. This resulted in her changing her constituency to the newly formed Maheshwaram (Assembly constituency). Though she moved few days prior to the election to the new constituency, she beat the local stalwart by a margin of 8000 votes. Thus, she became the first female Home Minister of Andhra Pradesh and a first female home minister to any state in India.^[11]

2014 General elections[]

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In 2014, Sabitha did not contest the elections though she was the favorite to win the seat from Maheshwaram. She was denied a Congress ticket as the Indian National Congress decided to give the ticket to only one member of the family. Her son contested from Chevella Parliamentary constituency and lost marginally to the then Telangana Rashtra Samithi Candidate. Many of her followers criticized the Congress Party as it was a hypocritical move, keeping in mind that Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi contest elections as a mother-son duo.

2018 General elections[]

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After 4 years in the opposition and struggle for the Congress Party, Sabitha's good work was recognized by the constituents of the Maheshwaram Assembly. This time even the Congress Party gave her the ticket but at the cost of her son's ticket from Rajendranagar (Assembly constituency). Instead, Karthik was promised the Chevella MP ticket by the Congress Party's 3-member committee (consisting of Bhaktha charandas, Ahmed Patel & D.K Shivakumar), which was not fulfilled later. However, they sacrificed one ticket and Sabitha won the election over sitting MLA Teegala Krishna Reddy by a margin of 9,227 votes.

Sabitha and Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy relations[]

YSR and Sabitha enjoyed a strong relationship and YSR often called her Chevella Chellamma, (which roughly translates to be the younger sister from the region of Chevella, in Telugu). This relation is well depicted in the Telugu movie Yatra, where the role of sabitha was played by Suhasini Maniratnam. YSR launched every govt scheme from her constituency of Chevella and believed his younger sister to be a good luck charm. The prestigious padayatra (1600 km) was also started from Chevella. As a result, Sabitha walked along with YSR for almost 400 km in the Telangana region. YSR even brought the then Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh to her constituency for launch of National Food For Work Programme.^[12]

References[]