Buggana Rajendranath to present his maiden Budget today

KURNOOL: When Buggana Rajendranath presents his budget on Friday, he will be the first sarpanch from Rayalaseema who rose to the ranks of a finance minister after the likes of Kotla Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy and Pidathala Ranga Reddy. Mr Rajendranath served twice as the sarpanch of Betamcherla village in Dhone taluk.

Representing Dhone Constituency in Kurnool, Mr Rajendranath shot to prominence in YSRC within no time. Said to be a close confidante of Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, his innings in the Assembly were laced with puns, sarcasm and an inimitable style of fixing Opposition leaders with pungent native short stories and anecdotes.

Very often the Opposition was silenced by his unique speeches, said a YSRC leader.

He was elected Member of the Legislative Assembly (India) representing Dhone constituency in both 2019 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly election and 2014 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly election. From 2016-19, he served as the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman of Andhra Pradesh.

Voluble in reeling out numbers and dissecting complex mental algorithms behind schemes designed by the wily Opposition party in the state, Mr Rajendranath edged himself close to Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy. One common denominator between both the leaders was that the Hyderabad Public School binds them. Both the leaders were born after 1970 with a year’s gap in between them. People in his native district Kurnool wish that Mr Rajendranath sport a moustache to reflect the virility and leader-like nature of the people of Rayalaseema.

The Buggana family is traditionally into the granite mining business. And Y.S. Jagan had wide interest in mining operations.