‘Sasikala of Andhra’ was the epithet K V P Ramachandra Rao — wanted by the Interpol in a multi-million dollar bribery case in the United States — had earned when his close friend Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh from 2004 to 2009.

Sources in the Congress say Rao, who is currently a Rajya Sabha MP, was the go-to man for any work businessmen and industrialists wanted to get done in the YSR government. The two, say Congress sources, were good friends. “YSR trusted Rao enormously. Rao was largely unheard of before YSR became the chief minister but came to exercise enormous influence during YSR's tenure,” an Andhra politician said.

Their friendship dated back to their medical student days. They came in contact while practicing medicine in the early 1960s.

YSR, after becoming the chief minister, appointed Rao as the advisor to the government of Andhra Pradesh on public affairs. Rao enjoyed the status of a Cabinet minister in the government. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in August 2008. It was his proximity to YSR and the influence he wielded within the government that led many to start likening him to Sasikala Natarajan, AIADMK chief and Tamilnadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s confidante during the latter’s chief ministerial tenures in the late 1990s.

Unlike Sasikala, who eventually fell out with Jayalalithaa, the 65-year-old Rao has continued to be close to the Reddy family even after YSR’s death in a helicopter crash in 2009.

Sources say Rao still handles the financial dealings of YSR’s son Y S Jaganmohan Reddy. “But at the same time, he has also proved his usefulness to the Congress,” a source in the party said. The Congress re-nominated Rao for a second Rajya Sabha term earlier this month, that is after his indictment in the bribery scandal was certain.

The Central Bureau of Investigation had questioned Rao during its investigation into the disproportionate assets cases against Jaganmohan. But he wasn’t named in any of the chargesheets. Rao has no criminal cases against him other than the one in the US.

As the Rajya Sabha member, Rao has been a member of the committee on finance and also of the consultative committee on health, member of the Shipping Board and a member of the committee on Agriculture.

The United States has asked India for “provisional arrest” of Rao after an American court indicted him in a $18.5 billion bribery case related to allowing of mining of Titanium in Andhra Pradesh.

Rao couldn’t be reached for comments.