Senior journalist, advocate and former Right to Information Commissioner P V Vijaya Babu from Vijayawada has been appointed as the new chairman of Andhra Pradesh Official Languages’ Commission.
Sixty-four-year-old Vijaya Babu, a known supporter of the YSR Congress party and closer to YSR family, will be replacing former Rajya Sabha member and literary activist Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad.
It may be mentioned that Lakshmi Prasad resigned from the post on September 21, in protest against the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government’s decision to drop the name of legendary actor and former chief minister N T Rama Rao from the University of Health Sciences.
Vijaya Babu, who was the editor of Andhra Prabha Telugu daily for a long time, worked with various veteran journalists and headed the journalists’ unions. He was also a prominent face on television channels as a news analyst and is known for his pro-YSR stand.
During the regime of former chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, he was appointed as one of the commissioners of Right to Information.
Interestingly, after demitting the office in 2017, he joined Jana Sena Party headed by Pawan Kalyan before 2019 elections, but came out of it within four months. Since then, he has been supporting the YSRC in television debates and articles. And that loyalty paid off for him now.
As reported in these columns, another senior journalist and anchor in Sakshi television Kommineni Srinivasa Rao, too, is likely to be appointed as Andhra Pradesh Press Academy chairman next week. He will be replacing Devireddy Srinath Reddy, who will be retiring on November 7.
