Tarimela Nagi Reddy

Tarimala Nagi Reddy (February 11, 1917 - July 28, 1976), often called “TN” was a communist politician from Andhra Pradesh, India.

T.N. Reddy was born in Tarimela in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh.

He studied at Loyola College in Madras and at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi. During his student days he got involved with nationalism and Marxism. His political activities got him jailed in 1940, 1941 and 1946.

Reddy was elected to the Madras legislative assembly, as a communist candidate, in 1951. He was elected to the LokSabha from Anantapur in 1957. In 1962 he was elected to the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly as a Communist Party of India candidate from Putloor. In 1967 he was again elected to the assembly, now as a Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate from Anantapur.

 In 1968 T.N. Reddy broke with CPI(M) and formed the Andhra Pradesh Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries. He succeeded in attracting a large part of the CPI(M) cadre to APCCCR. During a brief period APCCCR was part of All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries. Reddy was however very critical of the left adventurist line of Charu Majumdar. Instead he wanted to promote a mass line. Thus Reddy and APCCCR were expelled from AICCCR.

 In 1975 Unity Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India (Marxist-Leninist) was formed through the merger of APCCCR and three other smaller groups. T.N. Reddy worked as a leader of APCCCR until his death in 1976. Today

 T.N. Reddy is an important source of inspiration for many in the revolutionary left in India, such as the CPI(ML) of Kanu Sanyal. His most famous work is India Mortgaged.