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Jetti Geeta Reddy[a] (born 1947) is an Indian gynecologist and politician of the Indian National Congress. She served as member of the Telangana Legislative Assembly representing the Zahirabad constituency of Sangareddy district from 2014 to 2018. She is the working president of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee since July 2021.
Reddy has been a minister in the cabinets of various governments. She was also leader of the INC in the legislative assembly during the government of Konijeti Rosaiah.
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Geeta Reddy is the daughter of Eshwari Bai,[2] a former Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) and President of the Republican Party of India. She studied medicine at Osmania Medical College, Hyderabad and became a Member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, London in 1989.[3]
She contested elections for the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1989 and became MLA for Gajwel in Medak district. She won that constituency again in 2004.[4]
In the 2009 elections, Reddy was parachuted into the Zahirabad constituency, which had elected INC candidates in every election bar one since 1957. Converted to a seat reserved for candidates from the Scheduled Castes,[5] the constituency had been held for a decade by the INC's Mohammed Fareeduddin, who commanded much local respect but was forced by this decision to contest the election elsewhere and lost. She won the seat and did so again in 2014, despite allegations that Fareeduddin had been encouraging his local supporters to vote for any party except the INC.[6] On this occasion, the election was for a seat in the newly created Telangana Legislative Assembly that was created as part of the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
Reddy was a minister in the cabinets of Marri Chenna Reddy, Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy and Y. S. Rajasekhar Reddy.[7] She was INC leader in the legislative assembly during the Rosaiah government.[8]
Member of Legislative Assembly
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- 1989–1994: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Social Welfare, Sports, Secondary Education and Protocol.
- 1995–1998: General Secretary, Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC)
- 1998–2000: Executive Member of PCC
- 2000–2004: President, Andhra Pradesh Mahila Congress Committee.
- 2004–2009: Minister for Tourism, Sugar and Major Industries commerce and Export promotion.
- 2009–2010: Minister for Information and Public relations, Tourism, Culture, FDC, Archaeology, Museums & Archives, Cinematography.
- 2010–2014: Minister for Major Industries, Sugar, Commerce and Export promotion
Reddy was also for some time around 2013 in charge of the Home department in the Andhra Pradesh government whilst also holding the Major Industries portfolio.[9] In the same year, the Telugu Desam Party had demanded that she be dismissed as a minister due to her being one of the co-accused named by the Central Bureau of Investigation in its work on a case relating to alleged illegal assets held by Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy.[10] The matter was dropped, with one of her co-accused, Mopidevi Venkataramana Rao, claiming that the Chief Minister, Kiran Kumar Reddy, had intervened.[11]
In April 2016, Reddy was appointed chairman of the Telangana Legislative Assembly's Public Accounts Committee.[12]
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J. Geeta Reddy is married to Dr. Ramachandra Reddy.[13] She has a daughter.[6]
Around 1980, after Reddy's husband had suffered a stroke and was not responding well to conventional medicine, the couple visited Sathya Sai Baba. She has expressed admiration for him, noting that her husband's health began to improve soon after the meeting,[13] and has been described as a devotee.[14]
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