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are appreciative of the fact that they have made this donation and I for one certainly look forward to that ancient and historical dynasty playing a great part in furthering the interests of our state.%u201dPVG Raju's time as the Minister for Health was brief but by the time elections came around in 1962, he had established himself as a clear-sighted, firm-handed administrator. He had a loyal following amongst the political leadership in the districts of Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam and parts of Srikakulam. Given his royal antecedents, he was also vastly popular amongst the people. All in all, he had become one of most powerful Congress leaders in the state of Andhra Pradesh.Though not the Chief Minister, PVG Raju had a say in the distribution of most of the party tickets in the north coastal Andhra region. He himself chose to continue in Bheemunipatnam, allowing his close associate Bhattam Sriram Murthy to contest from Vizianagaram. The results of the elections were a foregone conclusion. The Congress swept the polls in the region bagging more than 75% of the seats.The Congress returned to power in Andhra Pradesh with Sanjeeva Reddy as the Chief Minister and PVG Raju joined the Cabinet as the Education Minister.During his tenure as Education Minister, PVG Raju ensured rapid expansion of free universal primary education by massive recruitment of teachers and putting them through a course in child pedagogy in %u2018Basic Training Schools%u2019 set up for the purpose. He aimed to democratise and increase the access to secondary and higher levels of education through the introduction of a grant-in-aid scheme for private educational institutions. The reasoning was that most high schools and 136