Hyderabad:
Vyricherla Kishore Chandra Suryanarayana Deo, inducted into the union cabinet, is a five-time Congress MP from Araku constituency in north coastal Andhra Pradesh with vast parliamentary experience.
The 64-year-old leader comes from a Scheduled Tribe community Konda Dora and a family of tribal hill chiefs. He has been named Cabinet Minister of Tribal and Panchayati Raj Affairs.
He earlier served as union minister of state for steel, mines and coal in 1979-80.
Hailing from Vizianagaram district in north coastal Andhra, Kishore Chandra Deo was elected as the Member of Parliament for the first time in 1977 in the sixth Lok Sabha.
He was re-elected to the seventh and eighth Lok Sabhas in 1980 and 1984 respectively. He became a member of Rajya Sabha in 1994.
Deo was again elected to Lok Sabha in 2004 and re-elected in 2009.
He has been a member of various parliamentary committees. He was also chairman of the committee to probe the alleged offer of money made to some MPs in connection with voting on the motion of confidence in 2008. He also served as chairman of the committee to inquire into allegations of misuse of MPLAD funds and the chairman of the committee of privileges of the Lok Sabha in 2006.
He was also chairman, Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill that led to the historic forest rights Act.
Educated at Chennai Christian College, Tambaram, Chennai, Deo did his graduation in economics and M.A. in political science.
Suave and soft-spoken, Deo's favourite pastimes include walking, cooking, astrology and music. He also authored 'Changing India's Political Mould', a book on electoral and federal reforms in India.
Married to V. Preeti Deo, he has a son and a daughter.