Ayyadevara Kaleswara Rao

Ayyadevara Kaleswara Rao was the first Speaker of the Andhra Pradesh State Assembly and a freedom fighter. He was born in the year 1882 on Jan 22, in Nandigamavillage, Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh. He breathed his last on 26 Feb, 1962. The famous KaaLESwara Rao market in Vijayawada was named in his honour.

He was born into an aruvela niyogi brahmin family who were in the profession of KaraNikam (revenue collector). Kaleswara Rao moved with his mother and wife to Machilipatnamwhere he studied F.A. at Noble College, Machilipatnam. At Noble college, he was under the tutelage of educationist and social reformer BrahmaSri Dewan Bahadur Raghupathi Venkataratnam Naidu garu. Kaleswara Rao and his friends laid the foundation for Andhra Granthalayodyamam (Library movement) by starting Ram Mohana Granthalayam at Mahatma Gandhi Road, Vijayawada in 1911. He was also the founding member of Vignyana Chandrika, a literary society to fund and encourage original literary works in Telugu and also translations from European and other Indian languages in to Telugu.

Kaleswara Rao moved to Chennai along with his mother and wife to join Law College in early 1904 and studied B.L. during the years 1904 and 1905. Post completion of his Bachelors in Law, Kaleswara Rao rejected opportunities to become Revenue Inspector and District Munsif on the premise that he does not want to work for the British Government. In June 1906, he started career as a lawyer in Vijayawada. On 21 March 1921, on the instructions on Mahatma Gandhi, he left law profession in order to take part in the Independence struggle and never took it up again.

Kaleswara Rao was the speaker of Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly from 1956 to 1962.