Kala Venkata Rao was an Indian independence activist and politician. He served as the Minister for Revenue in the governments of the Madras Presidency and Andhra Pradesh. He also served as the Minister of Finance in the latter.
Rao had his primary education at his native place Mukkamala and secondary education at Middle School, Pulletikurru and Board High School, Amalapuram. He joined intermediate class in Maharajah's College, Vizianagaram. He passed Intermediate and joined B.A. in the same college during the academic year 1919–20. But he was sent out of college as he happened to be ring-leader of anti-British feelings in the college. Thereupon he joined senior B.A. class at Noble College, Machilipatnam. Those were the days of non-cooperation movement. When Mahatma Gandhi gave a call for boycott of the law courts, educational institutions and legislative bodies, Kala Venkata Rao who was bubbling with patriotic enthusiasm responded to this call; gave up his studies and jumped into the fray.
Marriage
Rao married Rajeswaramma, the daughter of Duvvuri Venkateswarulu, then the village munsiff of Mukkamala, on 20 April 1914. His father-in-law was a great patriot, philanthropist and gentleman. He is related to Sripada Krishnamurty Sastry, the first poet laureate of Andhra Pradesh and Bouloussou Soubramanion Sastroulou, politician from French Yanam through their wives and Sripada Venkata Ratnamba (née Kala) and Bouloussou Souryapracassamma (née Kala), respectively.
Rao died on 28 March 1959 in Hyderabad from cardiac arrest while he was recovering from influenza. The Speaker of the Lok Sabha, M. A. Ayyangar, while paying homage to Rao called him "one of the stalwart statesmen of Andhra Pradesh".[9]
^T., Vasundhara (1992). "VI The Andhra Claim for Madras City"(PDF). The Final Phase Of The Andhra Movement 1947 56 A Critical Study (Doctoral thesis). Sri Venkateswara University. p. 261. Retrieved 3 July 2022.