Telugus' National Anthem

Maa Telugu Thallki official anthem

Chittoor district centenary celebration at Tirupathi

Chittoor Collectorate has clarified on Friday that the district centenary celebrations will be kick-started by singing the State anthem ‘Maa Telugu Thalliki' without fail. Single district produced as many as four Chief Ministers.

Two Chief Ministers of the then composite Madras State were from Chittoor, while two others wielded the reins of the present Andhra Pradesh.

The Raja of Panagal, Panaganti Ramarayaningar, was the Chief Minister of Madras Presidency from July 1921 to December 1926.

Though born in Srikalahasti in a Zamindari family, he did his schooling in Madras and mastered both Sanskrit and Dravidian languages with élan.

He got attracted to the Justice Party and served as its president for three years from 1925.

After ascending the throne in July 1921, the Raja worked for the uplift of the oppressed classes. In recognition of his services towards the development of Theagaroya Nagar as a commercial hub in Chennai, the park providing lung space in the otherwise concrete jungle was named as ‘Panagal Park'.

‘Diwan Bahadur' Bollini Munuswamy Naidu, a native of Vepanjeri, accepted the Chief Minister's post in October 1930 and served only for two years, before stepping down due to internal turbulence.

The practising advocate was one of the early members of Justice Party and had even served as its president between 1928 and 1932.

Two Chittoorians served as the Chief Minister after Andhra Pradesh was carved out on linguistic basis. Nara Chandrababu Naidu, hailing from Naravaripalle in Chandragiri constituency, started his political career as a student leader.

He joined the Congress and later the Telugu Desam Party to become a legislator, but what turned his career around was his wedding to N.Bhuvaneswari, daughter of the TDP supremo N.T. Rama Rao. Parting ways with NTR, he went on to become the Chief Minister in 1995 and served up to 2004.

The present incumbent Nallari Kirankumar Reddy, who took up the reins in the midst of chaotic conditions, is the fourth from Chittoor. Though ‘technically' hailing from a family of landlords in Kalikiri mandal, Kiran was born and brought up in Hyderabad.

He was elected from Vayalpad in 1989, 1999 and 2004, but saw a crushing defeat in 1994. With Vayalpad constituency vanishing due to the delimitation exercise, he got elected from Pileru in 2009