Polsani Muralidhar Rao is an Indian political activist and politician, he served as a National General Secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from 2013 to 2020.

[1] Rao joined the Indian cultural volunteer organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh at a young age and became its pracharak (full-time worker).

While at Osmania University, he served as the Gen Secretary of Arts College students' union and an activist of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.

[citation needed] He assisted RSS leaders Dattopant Thengadi, Madan Das and S Gurumurthy in floating Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, a movement to protect Indian rural economy against the onslaught of globalisation.

Muralidhar Rao was also in contention for the post of the BJP President, after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections saw Rajnath Singh becoming the Union Home Minister.