Mudragada Padmanabha Reddy

Mudragada Padmanabha Reddy (born Mudragada Padmanabham) is an Indian politician, an ex-Member of Parliament from Kakinada, and political activist known for campaigning for the inclusion of the Kapu (caste) in the Backward Class (BC) category.

Early life
Mudragada was born as Mudragada Padmanabham in a Telugu family inKirlampudi village, East Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh, India. His father's name was Veera Raghava Rao. Padmanabham finished his schooling in his village. His father was elected as an Independent MLA in Prattipadu two times, in 1962 and 1967. He was known as Kirlampudi Munciff.

Career
Mudragada was a four-time Member of Legislative Assembly, one-time Member of Parliament and Minister in Telugu Desam Party and Indian National Congress governments. He started his political career as Janata Party MLA in 1978. Later, when N. T. Rama Rao started Telugu Desam Party in 1982, he joined and won both 1983 and 1985 elections from Prattipadu Assembly constituency in East Godavari District.

He resigned his Ministry in N. T. Rama Rao's cabinet and started Praja Rakshana Samiti. Later, he started the Telugu Nadu Party with K. E. Krishnamurthy and Kunduru Jana Reddy, who are now with the Telugu Desam and the Congress, respectively. In 1988, he hosted a reception at Prattipadu for the late Rajiv Gandhi, then Prime Minister. He was elected as an MLA and also held a Ministerial berth.

He lost for the first time as an MLA in 1994 and did not contest again from Prattipadu constituency. He later associated himself with Kapunadu and later with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). While working with BJP, he played a key role in the election of Krishnam Raju from Kakinada.

He was with BJP for 4 years. He attended Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Sakhas during this period. Later in 1999, he represented Telugu Desam in the Lok Sabha from Kakinada and then lost in 2004 elections from the same constituency.

He joined the YSR Congress Party in the presence of party president and chief minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy at Tadepalli camp office on 15 March 2024. Upon his joining into the YSRCP, the president of the Kapu Sankshema Sangam, Puli Sriramulu denounced him from the community.

Name change
Prior to the 2024 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly election, in April 2024, he vowed to change his name from Padmanabham to Padmanabha Reddy if he failed to ensure the defeat of Pawan Kalyan in the Pithapuram assembly constituency. He failed the challenge, as Kalyan won in Pithapuram with a whopping majority of 70,279 votes over YSRCP candidate Vanga Geetha. Later in June 2024, Padmanabham declared that he will be formally submitting an application to change his name to Padmanabha Reddy through a gazette.

On 20 June 2024, he changed his name to Mudragada Padmanabha Reddy.