'I have full faith in the people of Andhra Pradesh and our work,' Gandhi quoted him as having said then. Manmohan Singh spoke of YSR's 'innovative programmes' and that he depended on him for 'support and ideas'.

Rangarajan also cited how he crushed Maoist insurgency in the state completely with his Greyhounds, an elite commando force of Andhra Pradesh raised in 1989. The Greyhounds have been quite effective in subduing the Maoists who at one time controlled 23 of the state's 26 districts.

Rangarajan said it was not just commando operation. Reddy supplemented it with a 'highly targetted socio-economic programme, which is a lesson for several parts of the country plagued by insurgency'.

While he has been credited with stewarding the centre's flagship National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme most effectively in Andhra Pradesh, he also took several other initiatives.

'For instance, the Rajiv Arogyasree scheme. He got upmarket private hospitals to treat the poor. And if they did not, he would warn them with 'I can cancel your licence'. They had to,' Rangarajan told IANS.

Under the health scheme, the government would foot the bills of surgeries of up to Rs.2 lakh for families below poverty line in expensive corporate hospitals. A health insurance scheme was also part of it under which the insurance companies pay the hospital bills while the government settles the premium.

There is also an ambulance scheme for rural Andhra Pradesh, added Rangarajan, under which ambulance vans are available to pick up patients from their homes and take them to hospitals. 'The Delhi government is planning something like this,' he said.