Senior TDP leader and Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker Ayyanna Patrudu announces he will quit politics after his current term to retire at age 73.

Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly Speaker and veteran Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader Chintakayala Ayyanna Patrudu has announced that he will retire from active politics and will not contest the upcoming 2029 elections. Making the surprise announcement on his 70th birthday while inaugurating a blood donation camp at the Narsipatnam Area Hospital-an annual drive he has hosted for 31 years-the veteran politician stated that advancing age has prompted his decision to step aside and take physical rest.
Ayyanna Patrudu explained that with two years of his five-year term now behind him, he has roughly three years remaining in office. Rather than preparing for another election cycle, he intends to spend these final three years focusing entirely on completing public development projects and resolving civic grievances in his home constituency of Narsipatnam. Speaking plainly to his constituents, he noted that by the time the 2029 elections arrive, he will be 73 years old, adding that once his current tenure wraps up, his political chapter is finished and he will no longer have the official capacity to carry out major public works.
The announcement marks the approaching close of a political career spanning more than four decades. Ayyanna Patrudu entered public life at the founding of the TDP in 1982 when party founder N.T. Rama Rao fielded him as an energetic young candidate barely 25 years of age. Over the subsequent decades, he grew into a dominant mass leader across north coastal Andhra, contesting 10 assembly elections, winning seven times as an MLA, representing Anakapalli in the Lok Sabha in 1998, and handling key ministerial portfolios under both N.T. Rama Rao and N. Chandrababu Naidu before being elevated to Assembly Speaker in 2024.
In state political circles, his retirement announcement is also viewed as a clear pathway for the next generation of his family to take over the political reins. His elder son, Chintakayala Vijay, currently represents the TDP in the Rajya Sabha, while his younger son, Rajesh, has been managing ground-level constituency work as a municipal councillor. While local party workers and followers expressed surprise over the sudden decision, Ayyanna Patrudu reassured supporters that although he is leaving electoral contests behind, his personal connection with the local community will never change.