Kishore Chandra Deo


Vyricherla Kishore Chandra Suryanarayana Deo is an Indian politician and a member of the Telugu Desam Party political party. He has been elected to the Lok Sabha for five times, and has also held one term in the Rajya Sabha. From July 2011 to May 2014, he was the Union Cabinet Minister for Tribal Affairs & Panchayati Raj

Early life

Kishore Chandra Deo was born in Kurupam to Raja V. Durgaprasad Deo of Kurupam and Rani Sobhalata Devi. He is the present Zamindar of Kurupam, Vizianagram District, Andhra Pradesh. He belongs to the Konda Dora scheduled tribe community, and is from a family of tribal hill chiefs. He was educated in Madras, he holds an M.A. degree in Political Science and a B.A. degree in Economics from Madras Christian College, Madras.

Political career

Deo was a member of the Lok Sabha representing the Araku constituency in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. He has been a member of the Congress Working Committee which is the highest decision-making body of the party. He was first elected to parliament in 1977 and has been elected to the Lok Sabha five times, and has also held one term in the Rajya Sabha. On 12 July 2011 he was sworn in as a Cabinet Minister in the Union Cabinet, holding the portfolios of Tribal Affairs and Panchayati Raj.
He was also a Minister of State for Steel, Mines and Coal in the Central Cabinet in 1979-80. He has served on numerous parliamentary committees, and has been the chairperson of several key parliamentary committees, including the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Bill that led to the Forest Rights Act. He was also the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Undertakings.
He headed the parliamentary investigation into the 2008 cash-for-votes scandal.
Deo is the author of the book Changing India's Political Mould, published in 1993. The book is on electoral and federal reforms in India.

Positions held