Rao served as the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president in the mid-2000s, during the tenure of late Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy in Andhra Pradesh.

[1] Despite being from Telangana he was assigned to Andhra Pradesh because of the lot method used to assign Rajya Sabha members for the newly created Telangana and residual Andhra Pradesh.

[5][6][7] He was appointed as the Advisor (Public Affairs) to the Government of Telangana with Cabinet status by Chief Secretary A. Santhi Kumari on July 6.

[10] He was born to K. Niranjan Rao and Govindamma in Mahbubabad, Warangal, Hyderabad State on 13 December 1940 (official records 6 June 1939).

One of his daughters, Gadwal Vijayalakshmi, is the current mayor of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.