Elected to the Madras Legislative Assembly in 1946 as a Congress representative, Reddy became secretary of the Congress' legislature party. He was also a Member of the
Indian Constituent Assembly from Madras. From April 1949 to April 1951, he was the Minister for Prohibition, Housing and Forests of the
Madras State. Reddy lost the 1951 election to the
Madras Legislative Assembly to the
Communist leader
Tarimela Nagi Reddy, his brother-in-law.
Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra State In 1951, in a closely contested election, he was elected President of the
Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee defeating
N G Ranga. When the
Andhra State was formed in 1953, T. Prakasam became its Chief Minister and Reddy became the
deputy.
Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh (1956–60, 1962–64) After the formation of the state of
Andhra Pradesh by incorporating
Telangana with the Andhra State, Reddy became its first Chief Minister from 1 November 1956 to 11 January 1960. He was Chief Minister for a second time from 12 March 1962 to 20 February 1964, thus holding that office for over five years. Reddy was
MLA from
Sri Kalahasti and
Dhone respectively during his stints as Chief Minister. The
Nagarjuna Sagar and
Srisailam multipurpose river valley projects were initiated during his tenure. The
Government of Andhra Pradesh later renamed the Srisailam project to Neelam Sanjiva Reddy Sagar in his honour. The Congress governments under Reddy placed emphasis on
rural development, agriculture and allied sectors. The shift towards industrialisation remained limited and was largely driven by the
central government's investments in large
public sector enterprises in the state. Reddy's first term as Chief Minister ended in 1960 after he resigned on being elected
President of the Indian National Congress. In 1964, he resigned voluntarily following unfavourable observations made against the
Government of Andhra Pradesh by the
Supreme Court in the Bus Routes Nationalisation case.
Congress President (1960–62) and Union Minister (1964–67) Reddy served thrice as President of the Indian National Congress at its
Bangalore,
Bhavnagar and
Patna sessions during 1960 to 1962. He was thrice member of the Rajya Sabha.
Speaker of the Lok Sabha (1967–69) In the general elections of 1967, Reddy was elected to the Lok Sabha from
Hindupur in Andhra Pradesh. On 17 March 1967, Reddy was elected Speaker of the Fourth Lok Sabha becoming only the third person to be elected Speaker of the house during their inaugural term. To emphasize the independence of the Speaker's office, Reddy resigned from the Congress Party. His term as Speaker was marked by several firsts including the admission of a
No-Confidence Motion on the same day as the President's address to a joint session of Parliament, and the setting up of the Committee on the Welfare of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Reddy described his role as being the 'watchman of the Parliament'. He however had several hostile encounters with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the House that proved costly when he became, two years later, the Congress Party's nominee to succeed Zakir Hussain as president.
Presidential election of 1969 In 1969, following President
Zakir Husain's death, the Congress party nominated Reddy, a member of its Syndicate faction, as candidate for president although Prime Minister Indira Gandhi opposed him. She was forced to accept Reddy as the Congress party's official candidate and feared his election would allow the Syndicate to expel her from office. She asked Congress legislators to "vote according to their conscience" rather than blindly toe the Party line, in effect giving a call to support the independent candidate V V Giri. In a closely fought election held on 16 August 1969, V V Giri emerged victorious, winning 48.01 per cent of the first preference votes and subsequently getting a majority on counting the second preference votes. In the final tally, Giri had votes against the quota of votes required to be elected president and Reddy had votes. The election led to much discord within the Congress Party and culminated in the historic split of 1969 and the subsequent rise of Indira Gandhi in Indian politics. Subsequently, Reddy, who had resigned as Speaker of the Lok Sabha to contest the election, retired from active politics and moved back to Anantapur where he took to farming.
Return to active politics (1975–82) In response to
Jayaprakash Narayan's call for a
Total Revolution, Reddy emerged from his political exile in 1975. In January 1977, he was made a member of the Committee of the
Janata Party and in March, he fought the
General Election from the
Nandyal (Lok Sabha constituency) in Andhra Pradesh as a Janata Party candidate. He was the only non-Congress candidate to be elected from Andhra Pradesh. The Congress Party led by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was defeated, ending 30 years of Congress rule in India and a five party coalition with Morarji Desai as its leader came to power. Reddy was unanimously elected Speaker of the Sixth Lok Sabha on 26 March 1977. However he resigned a few months later to contest in the presidential elections of July 1977.
Presidential election of 1977 The presidential election of 1977 was necessitated by the death in office of the incumbent
Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. Although Prime Minister
Morarji Desai wanted to nominate danseuse
Rukmini Devi Arundale for the post, she turned down the offer. Reddy was elected unopposed, the only President to be elected thus, after being unanimously supported by all political parties including the opposition Congress party. At 64, he was the youngest person to be elected President of India until
Droupadi Murmu was
elected President in 2022. He was also the only serious presidential candidate to have contested twice – in 1969 against
V V Giri and in 1977. 37 candidates had filed their nominations for the presidency of whom 36 were rejected by the returning officer. Following these disqualifications, Reddy remained the only validly nominated candidate in the fray which made elections unnecessary. Reddy thus became the first person to be elected President of India without a contest and remains the only President to have been elected unopposed. ==Presidency (1977–1982) ==