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Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader, four-time MLA from Vemulawada, scion of an illustrious political family and a close aide of BRS chief and ex-Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, Dr Chennamaneni Ramesh was dealt a blow on Monday after the Telangana High Court upheld the Centre’s order revoking his Indian citizenship and fined him Rs 30 lakh for misleading the court.
Justice B Vijaysen Reddy, while settling the 15-year-old case, directed Ramesh to pay Rs 25 lakh to his Congress bete noir and petitioner Aadi Srinivas and Rs 5 lakh to the Telangana State Legal Services Authority.
Ramesh had moved to Germany in the 1980s to pursue an MSc in Agriculture from Leipzig University and in 1987, completed his PhD from Humboldt University, Berlin. After returning to India briefly, he migrated to Germany in 1993, married a German citizen and gave up his Indian citizenship.
His citizenship troubles began in 2009, during his first term as MLA, after then Congress candidate and current MLA Srinivas alleged that his rival had submitted false citizenship documents in his nomination papers and approached the (then Andhra Pradesh) High Court.
The court on August 13, 2013 ruled that Ramesh held dual citizenship and thus was ineligible to contest polls. Ramesh challenged the decision in the Supreme Court, which stayed the High Court’s decision on August 11, 2016 while directing the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to take a decision on the issue.
The MHA, in September 2017, cancelled Ramesh’s Indian citizenship citing his German citizenship. Two years later, he challenged the order in the Telangana High Court, contending that the Centre’s order had violated Section 10(3) of the Citizenship Act, 1955 and that the cancellation of his citizenship was unconstitutional. Ramesh had then told The Indian Express that he had returned to India in 2009 and had applied for citizenship, which was granted to him on February 3, 2009. However, Srinivas has been filing counter petitions and targeting Ramesh over the issue.
Ramesh claimed his calling was in Germany but his family roots made it a natural choice for him to enter politics. His father C Rajeshwar Rao was a five-time MLA from Sircilla and a tall Communist leader who participated in the Quit India movement and the uprising against the Nizam’s rule. He later joined the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). His uncle is BJP leader and former Union Minister of State, C Vidyasagar Rao, who went on to serve as Governor of Maharashtra between 2014 and 2019.
Ramesh’s electoral debut came after his father, who had successfully contested on a TDP ticket in 2004 from Sircilla, opted out and managed to secure a nomination from the party for his son from Vemulawada. “Ramesh quickly gained popularity in the constituency with his good work and outreach to people,” former BRS MLA Narsimha Rao said.
The former Vemulawada MLA later quit the TDP and joined the BRS (then TRS) in support of the Telangana statehood movement even as his stellar academic background helped him grow close to party supremo K Chandrashekar Rao or KCR. Despite retaining the Vemulawada seat in 2014 and 2018, Ramesh was overlooked by the BRS for the November 2023 Assembly polls owing to his citizenship troubles. His tenure as advisor to the BRS government on agriculture affairs, with a Cabinet rank, also lasted only three months (from August to November 2023) as the BRS lost power to the Congress.
