Who is Putta Mahesh Yadav?
Putta Mahesh Kumar Yadav is one of the youngest Members of Parliament to emerge from Andhra Pradesh in recent political history. A businessman by background and a politician by inheritance, he represents the Eluru Lok Sabha constituency under the banner of the Telugu Desam Party. Born into one of the state’s most politically connected families and married into another, his journey from the dusty lanes of Proddutur in Kadapa district to the floors of the 18th Lok Sabha is a story shaped equally by personal ambition, family legacy, and the turbulent currents of Andhra Pradesh politics.
Early Life and Family Background
Putta Mahesh Kumar was born on 10 April 1988 in Proddutur, a mid-sized town in Kadapa district that sits deep in the Rayalaseema heartland. Rayalaseema is a region with a political character entirely its own — factional, fierce, and intensely loyal to caste and community networks — and growing up there gave young Mahesh an instinctive understanding of how power actually works at the ground level.
His father, Putta Sudhakar Yadav, was not simply a TDP supporter but a significant figure within it. A businessman who built political weight over decades of grassroots work in the region, Sudhakar Yadav eventually rose to represent the Mydukur Assembly constituency in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly. He also held one of the most prestigious administrative positions available to a party loyalist — chairmanship of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams Trust Board — during an earlier TDP government. Overseeing the affairs of the richest temple trust in the world is not a role handed to ordinary party workers, and Sudhakar Yadav’s appointment to that position spoke to the depth of trust the party’s leadership had placed in the family.
Mahesh grew up watching his father navigate this world. Politics, for him, was never an abstraction. It was the phone calls at odd hours, the constant stream of visitors, the way entire communities looked to his father for intervention and guidance. This environment shaped both his sense of public duty and his understanding of what electoral politics demands from a person willing to pursue it.
Education
After completing his schooling in Andhra Pradesh, Mahesh Yadav pursued a Bachelor of Technology degree in civil engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in Hyderabad. JNTU Hyderabad has long been one of the premier technical institutions in South India, and the decision to study civil engineering was not incidental. The discipline aligned naturally with the infrastructure and construction interests that would later define his business career.
His university years in Hyderabad also exposed him to a broader political world beyond Rayalaseema’s factional landscape — a cosmopolitan city where student politics, caste networks, and business ambitions intertwine in complex ways. Those years appear to have strengthened his organisational instincts and expanded his social network well beyond his home district.
Business Career
On completing his engineering degree, Mahesh Yadav chose to build a business before committing fully to electoral politics. He became the Managing Director of PSK Infra and Projects Private Limited, an infrastructure and construction company. His engineering background gave him technical credibility in a sector where understanding soil, concrete, and structural specifications actually matters, and his family’s political connections across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana gave him the commercial relationships necessary to scale operations.
The infrastructure sector in Andhra Pradesh is deeply intertwined with government contracts, urban development projects, and political goodwill — making it a natural home for someone with Mahesh Yadav’s profile. His business earnings contributed significantly to the substantial personal wealth he later declared during his election candidacy.
A Marriage That United Two Dynasties
If Putta Mahesh Yadav’s family background gave him one pillar of political support, his marriage gave him a second one of equal or greater significance. He married into the family of Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, one of the Telugu Desam Party’s most senior and influential leaders. Yanamala served as Finance Minister of Andhra Pradesh during Chandrababu Naidu’s government and has long been a member of the party’s inner circle — a Politburo-level figure whose political longevity in the TDP is matched by very few.
The marriage effectively united two powerful Backward Class political families from Andhra Pradesh — the Putta family from Kadapa and the Yanamala family from the coastal districts. Within the TDP’s internal ecosystem, this kind of alliance carries real weight. It consolidates voter bases, combines networks, and creates a gravitational pull that party leadership finds difficult to ignore when allocating tickets and positions.
Mahesh’s younger brother, Dr. Putta Ravi Kumar, extended the family’s political reach even further by marrying the daughter of Telangana cabinet minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav — cementing cross-state political relationships that give the Putta family a presence in both Telugu-speaking states simultaneously.
Political Career
Mahesh Yadav’s entry into active electoral politics began with a contest for the Maidukuru Assembly constituency — the same area from which his father had built his political career. This early foray was as much about testing the waters and establishing his own credibility in the public eye as it was about winning the seat outright. It gave him the experience of running a campaign, building a local team, and understanding what voters in Rayalaseema actually want from their representatives.
The more significant opportunity came in 2024, when the Telugu Desam Party was preparing to contest the general elections as part of the NDA alliance alongside the Jana Sena Party and the BJP. The party was looking to field strong candidates across all 25 Andhra Pradesh constituencies, and the Eluru seat — a politically significant constituency in the coastal districts — needed a face that could combine local credibility with party loyalty.
Mahesh Yadav’s selection was not automatic. There were initial discussions within the party about other candidates, including an NRI named Gopal Yadav who had been considered for the Eluru seat. But Yanamala’s influence within the TDP’s decision-making structure, combined with Putta Sudhakar Yadav’s solid organisational standing, tipped the balance. Mahesh Yadav was formally declared the TDP candidate for Eluru, and the campaign machinery began rolling.
The 2024 Lok Sabha Election Victory
The 2024 general election in Andhra Pradesh was held in a single phase on May 13, with both the Lok Sabha and state assembly votes happening simultaneously. The political atmosphere in the state was electric. The YSRCP government of Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy was facing significant anti-incumbency, and the TDP-JSP-BJP alliance was running on a wave of public discontent with rising prices, alleged governance failures, and a perception that the state’s development had stalled.
Voter turnout in the Eluru constituency crossed 83 percent — a figure that reflected how seriously the electorate took this election. When the results were declared on June 4, Putta Mahesh Kumar Yadav had won by a margin of 181,857 votes, defeating the YSRCP candidate Karumuri Sunil Kumar Yadav in a result that was emphatic rather than merely comfortable. It was one of the larger winning margins in the state that cycle, a testament to both the TDP wave and the effectiveness of his campaign.
He was sworn in as a member of the 18th Lok Sabha on June 4, 2024 — at 36 years old, among the younger MPs in the new Parliament from Andhra Pradesh.
Net Worth and Declared Financial Position
The financial disclosures that candidates are required to make as part of their election nominations revealed a man of considerable personal wealth. According to his 2024 affidavit, Putta Mahesh Kumar Yadav declared total assets of approximately ₹72.1 crore. Of this, around ₹48.6 crore constituted movable assets — cash, bank deposits, investments, and other liquid holdings — while ₹23.5 crore was in immovable property. Against this, he declared liabilities of around ₹20 crore, likely linked to business borrowings through PSK Infra and related commercial operations.
These figures placed him comfortably among the wealthier first-term MPs in the 18th Lok Sabha and underscored the fact that his business career had been genuinely productive, not just a holding position while waiting for a political opportunity.
Controversies
No biography of Putta Mahesh Yadav is complete without an honest account of the three distinct controversies that have marked different stages of his public life. Taken together, they reveal a more complicated picture than the official party narrative suggests.
The 2014 SC/ST Act Case
In 2014, a case was registered against Mahesh Yadav at the Chapadu police station in YSR Kadapa district under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act. The complainant alleged that Mahesh had used caste-based abusive language and threatened him. The case was declared pending at the time of his 2024 election nomination, which means it had remained unresolved for a full decade by the time he filed his candidacy papers. This fact was listed in his own affidavit and became a reference point for opposition parties looking to challenge his suitability for public office.
The 2019 Audio Controversy
Shortly before the 2019 Andhra Pradesh state elections, an audio recording surfaced in which a voice identified as Mahesh Yadav’s was heard using abusive and caste-derogatory language directed at the son of a political rival. The audio circulated rapidly through political WhatsApp groups in the Mydukur region and caused considerable embarrassment at a sensitive electoral moment. At the time, Mahesh was still presenting himself primarily as a businessman rather than a direct candidate, and the controversy eventually receded without formal legal proceedings. But it left behind a reputational question mark that his critics have not allowed to fully disappear.
The 2025 Hyderabad Farmhouse Drug Scandal
The most serious controversy of Mahesh Yadav’s career erupted on the night of March 14, 2025 — less than a year into his term as an MP. A team from Telangana’s EAGLE unit, an elite narcotics enforcement squad, conducted a raid on a farmhouse in Moinabad on the outskirts of Hyderabad. The farmhouse belonged to a former BRS MLA, and among the guests present that night was Putta Mahesh Kumar Yadav.
When police conducted drug tests on those present, Mahesh initially returned a negative result in the urine screening. However, a subsequent blood test — which is significantly more sensitive — came back positive for cocaine. Six people in total tested positive that night. Police also recovered a small quantity of cocaine, a firearm, and substantial amounts of premium liquor from the premises.
Mahesh was granted station bail and, in scenes that attracted considerable media attention, was escorted out of the police station through a back exit to avoid the press gathered outside.
The political fallout was immediate and severe. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who is also the national president of the TDP, directed Mahesh Yadav to distance himself from all party activities pending an inquiry. He instructed the state TDP president to issue a formal explanation notice to the MP and submit a report on the incident to the party leadership. Sources within the TDP indicated that the party was seriously considering suspension, pending the outcome of the internal review process.
The incident was particularly damaging because it struck at two things the TDP leadership prizes: its image as a clean, reform-oriented party, and the symbolism of fielding young candidates as the face of a new political generation. As one commentary put it, Mahesh Yadav had been projected as a youth icon — a symbol of what young, educated, professionally accomplished Andhra Pradesh could achieve in democratic politics. The drug test result cut through that narrative with brutal simplicity.
Personal Life
Beyond politics and business, Putta Mahesh Yadav is described by those who know him as a person who carries the easy confidence of someone raised in privilege but without the arrogance that sometimes accompanies it. His marriage to Yanamala’s daughter placed him squarely within the upper echelon of TDP’s social world — the weddings, the temple functions, the party dinners where alliances are quietly confirmed. He is also a father, though he has largely kept details of his immediate family out of public view.
He maintains residences in both Hyderabad and in the Eluru constituency he represents — a practical necessity for any Lok Sabha member who takes constituency service seriously. How much time he invests in parliamentary work versus party-level activity remains to be fully assessed, given that his first term has barely begun and was already disrupted by the 2025 controversy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Putta Mahesh Yadav? Putta Mahesh Kumar Yadav is an Andhra Pradesh politician and businessman, currently serving as the Member of Parliament for the Eluru Lok Sabha constituency. He is a member of the Telugu Desam Party and one of the youngest MPs from the state in the 18th Lok Sabha.
Which constituency does Putta Mahesh Yadav represent? He represents the Eluru Lok Sabha constituency, which is Constituency Number 10 in Andhra Pradesh, covering parts of the Eluru district in the coastal Andhra region.
What is Putta Mahesh Yadav’s net worth? His declared net worth, as per his 2024 election affidavit, is approximately ₹72.1 crore in total assets, with liabilities of around ₹20 crore.
Who is Putta Mahesh Yadav’s father? His father is Putta Sudhakar Yadav, a senior TDP leader, MLA from Mydukur constituency in Kadapa district, and former chairman of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams Trust Board.
Who is Putta Mahesh Yadav’s father-in-law? His father-in-law is Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, a veteran TDP leader and former Finance Minister of Andhra Pradesh.
By how many votes did Putta Mahesh Yadav win in 2024? He won the Eluru Lok Sabha seat with a margin of 181,857 votes over YSRCP candidate Karumuri Sunil Kumar Yadav.
What happened in the Putta Mahesh Yadav drug case? In March 2025, Mahesh Yadav tested positive for cocaine in a blood test conducted during a Telangana Police raid on a farmhouse in Hyderabad. He was granted bail and subsequently directed by TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu to step away from party activities pending an internal inquiry.
What party does Putta Mahesh Yadav belong to? He is a member of the Telugu Desam Party, the ruling party of Andhra Pradesh under Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
What is PSK Infra and Projects? PSK Infra and Projects Private Limited is an infrastructure and construction company of which Putta Mahesh Yadav serves as Managing Director, drawing on his civil engineering background from JNTU Hyderabad.