Bharat Ratna for NTR?

He is the doyen of Telugu cinema and unarguably Telugu's most worshipped matinee idol. The On-screen God's foray into politics is nothing short of filmy story. His splashy political debut in 1982, which set tremors in the Indian political history, has still been talked about and used as a case-study by all new political parties. Bringing the solgan of "Aatma Gouravam" (Self-respect), veteran NTR pledged to rout Congress whose leadership belittled Telugus and changed five Chief Ministers of AP in five years. Every choice, decision he took 32 years ago is still being followed, practiced by many political parties now.

NTR decided to field educated candidates who had a good name in the society and were not indulged in corruption, which was an innovative political concept at the time. NTR himself decided to contest from two assembly constituencies, Gudivada and Tirupati. NTR used many innovative ways of campaigning, such as being the first politician in India to use rath yatras for campaigning. For this, he used a modified Chevrolet van which was given the name of Chaitanya Ratham. In this, NTR travelled across the state of Andhra Pradesh, crisscrossing all the districts. With his son Nandamuri Harikrishna, also a film actor, driving the van, NTR notched up over 75,000 kilometres during his campaign, a distinctive sight with the van's yellow party flags and banners and NTR sitting on top of the vehicle hailing the crowds. NTR campaigned for restoring the dignity of the Telugu people and advocated the forming a closer bond between the government and the common people.

NTR's efforts have paid off. Within just 9 months, TDP surged to Power. Putting an end to Corrupt and inept rule of then Congress, NTR's Telugu Desam Party won a massive 202 seats out of 294 Assembly seats. NTR sworn in as 10th CM of AP on January 9, 1983. He is the first non-Congress Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.Since then, he has never looked back. NTR later went onto become CM for thrice. His populasit schemes like 1 Kg rice for 2 Rs, initiatives like abolition of Patel-Patwari system, development for backward castes were all historical and magnum opus.

No doubt, NTR holds special significance in the hearts of Telugus. His name, his work, his classic films, masterpieces will all be cherished as long as the earth lives. On the eve of his 91st birth anniversary today (May 28, 2014), there is a ray of hope in every Telugu that TDP-BJP combine, Chandra Babu-Narendra Modi Jodi, will fulfill their dream- to see Bharat Ratna conferred for NTR. And yes, it will be proud moment to every Telugu.

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