A village centre
built for everyone.

From student action to national leadership

Born in Kanchupadu on 25 March 1942, Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy began organising while still an eighth-grade pupil in Kurnool, leading classmates in a strike for blackboards, chalk and other basic school needs. At Osmania University Law College he was elected Students' Union General Secretary and helped turn the campus into a strong centre of student action.

Elevated to General Secretary of the All India Students' Federation in 1966 and again in 1969, he travelled throughout India and organised 62-day actions for hostels, scholarships and social-welfare measures, helping those campaigns succeed. He was imprisoned repeatedly during these struggles, including in the central jails of Patna, Lucknow, Delhi and Calcutta. By 1972 he was President of the All India Youth Federation and stood at the forefront of the campaign for voting rights at 18 rather than 21, later realised through the 61st Constitutional Amendment.

Parliamentarian of the working class

Elected to the Lok Sabha from Nalgonda in 1998 and 2004, he became Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour. His recommendations addressed social security for unorganised workers, maternity benefits for women workers, gratuity for private-school teachers and measures concerning farmers' suicides, contributing to important legislative action.

His parliamentary interventions covered fluoride contamination in Nalgonda, farmers' suicides, black money and the 2G spectrum issue. Outside Parliament, he led mass movements including the Andhra Pradesh agitation against electricity-price increases associated with World Bank policies. During police firing he was targeted and bullets passed close to his head, but he continued the struggle; the movement helped end the World Bank's controlling influence over state power policy.

At the helm of the CPI

He served as CPI Andhra Pradesh State Secretary from 1997 to 2005. As Deputy General Secretary from 2008, he worked to expand the Left among young people and university students by bringing class and caste struggles together. Elected General Secretary at the CPI's 21st Party Congress in March 2012, he served until 2019 and emphasised cadre education, expansion of mass organisations, united-Left street action and broad secular fronts against rising communal politics. During his stewardship, the party and its women's and youth wings recorded their fastest membership growth since the 1990s.

Global footprint, pen and podium

He carried India's tricolour and the red flag to more than 40 countries. His international work ranged from student congresses in the USSR and Mongolia to the United Nations General Assembly and engagements with fraternal parties in the United States, Italy, Vietnam, Japan and elsewhere, strengthening international cooperation and informing CPI strategy at home.

A magnetic orator in Telugu, Hindi and English, he wrote essays, articles, pamphlets, booklets and books that explained contemporary Marxism to ordinary readers and campaigners. His speeches were remembered for clarity, empathy, information and ideological conviction, inspiring a generation of organisers. He died on 22 August 2025.

The Kendram's auditorium and library bear his name as spaces for learning, dialogue, culture and public participation.