Beginning a long political career with the Indian National Congress Party in the independence movement, he went on to hold several key offices in independent India – as deputy chief minister of Andhra state and the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, a two-time Speaker of the Lok Sabha and a Union Minister— before becoming the Indian president.

He later retired from active politics but returned in 1975, responding to Jayaprakash Narayan's call for "Total Revolution" against the Indira Gandhi Government.

Reddy was born into a Telugu Hindu family in Illur village, Madras Presidency (present-day Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh) on 19 May 1913.

[8] Reddy joined the Indian struggle for independence from the British Raj following Mahatma Gandhi's visit to Anantapur in July 1929 and dropped out of college in 1931.

Released in March 1942, he was arrested again in August and sent to the Amraoti jail where he served time with activists T Prakasam, S. Satyamurti, K Kamaraj and V V Giri till 1945.

In 1964, he resigned voluntarily following unfavourable observations made against the Government of Andhra Pradesh by the Supreme Court in the Bus Routes Nationalisation case.

He also served as Union Minister of Transport, Civil Aviation, Shipping and Tourism from January 1966 to March 1967 in Indira Gandhi's Cabinet.

[42] He however had several hostile encounters with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the House that proved costly when he became, two years later, the Congress Party's nominee to succeed Zakir Hussain as president.

[45] She asked Congress legislators to "vote according to their conscience" rather than blindly toe the Party line, in effect giving a call to support the independent candidate V V Giri.

[47][48] The election led to much discord within the Congress Party and culminated in the historic split of 1969 and the subsequent rise of Indira Gandhi in Indian politics.

[49][50] Subsequently, Reddy, who had resigned as Speaker of the Lok Sabha to contest the election, retired from active politics and moved back to Anantapur where he took to farming.

[14] Reddy's second term as Speaker lasted three months and 17 days and remains till date the shortest tenure for anyone to have held that post.

Although Prime Minister Morarji Desai wanted to nominate danseuse Rukmini Devi Arundale for the post, she turned down the offer.

[69] Reddy used presidential discretion in choosing Charan Singh as the next Prime Minister over a contending claim from Jagjivan Ram, the leader of the Janata Party.

[76][77] The convention of appointing a prime minister in a hung House but with conditions on time to prove majority was later adopted by President R Venkataraman.

[60][78] Following Charan Singh's resignation, Reddy summoned Chandrashekhar and Jagjivan Ram to Rashtrapati Bhavan to look into the possibility of forming an alternate government.

Reddy, convinced that they would not be able to form one, accepted Singh's advice and dissolved Lok Sabha, calling for a mid term election.

[87][88] Although heading a caretaker government, Singh proposed as many as seven ordinances on a broad range of matters from effecting changes in company law, providing state funding of elections and reservation of jobs for the backward classes.

[91] In the elections of 1980, Indira Gandhi's party the Indian National Congress (I) returned to power by winning 351 seats in the Lok Sabha.

[100][101] In his farewell address to the nation, Reddy criticised the failure of successive governments in improving the lives of the Indian masses and called for the emergence of a strong political opposition to prevent governmental misrule.

[102][103] Following his presidential term, the then Chief Minister of Karnataka Ramakrishna Hegde invited Reddy to settle down in Bangalore but he chose to retire to his farm in Anantapur.

[107][108] Parliament mourned Reddy's death on 11 June 1996 and members cutting across party lines paid him tribute and recalled his contributions to the nation and the House.

[111][112][113] The Postal Department of India released a commemorative stamp and special cover in honour of Reddy on the occasion of his birth centenary.