Daijiworld Media Network – Bangalore (SP)

Bangalore, Oct 23: P Muralidhar Rao, who is one of the general secretaries of BJP, has been given charge of Karnataka BJP affairs.

This post had remained vacant after Rao's predecessor, Dharmendra Pradhan, was elevated to the union ministry immediately after BJP came to power at the centre. Rao is the second person from Andhra Pradesh after Venkaiah Naidu to be given charge of the state BJP affairs. He was born in a family of agriculturists in Karim Nagar district.

Rao is known for his sincere work as a full time volunteer of both Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and Swadesh Jagran Manch, a Hindu outfit. He later joined BJP and got involved with politics. It is said that he came under naxal attack for trying to uphold Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's ideals as a student leader of Osmania University, Hyderabad.

Muralidhar Rao was later deputed to other states to organize students. He was made a secretary when Nitin Gadkari was national president of BJP. After Rajnath Singh took over this position from Gadkari, he elevated Rao as general secretary of the party in April 2013.

Rao had worked tirelessly to oppose all efforts of globalisation of commerce, including the ones made by the NDA regime headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee between 1998 and 2004, as a leader of Swadeshi Jagran Manch. The Manch steadfastly believes in giving impetus to rural-based small scale industries. He had bitterly criticized the Vajpayee government then for issuing guarantee on behalf of Enron Company, which eventually closed down business.