Daggubati Purandeswari

Daggubati Purandareswari (born April 22, 1959) is an Indian politician from the state of Andhra Pradesh. She represented the Visakhapatnam constituency of Andhra Pradesh as a Member of Parliament in the 15th Lok Sabha of India. She had previously represented the Bapatla constituency in the 14th Lok Sabha, during which period she served as the Minister of State in the Ministry of Human Resource Development. She joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on 7 March 2014. In 2014, she fought the Lok Sabha election on a BJP ticket from Rajampet and lost. Purandareswari was appointed BJP Mahila Morcha Prabhari.

As a Member of Parliament
She participated in debate on various bills such as 'Domestic Violence Bill, Hindu Succession Amendment Bill, and the bill on the establishment of special courts exclusively for trying cases of women to name a few' and made meaningful contributions. In appreciation of her performance in Parliament, the Asian Age adjudged her as the best Parliamentarian for 2004–05.

Early life and education
Born to Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao and Basavatarakam, she did her schooling from Sacred Heart Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Church Park, Chennai. She has a Bachelor of Arts from the South Indian Educational Trust and Women College (Chennai) (renamed as the Bashir Ahmed Sayeed College for Women), followed by a short course in gemmology at the Gemmological Institute of India. Later she established Hyderabad Institute of Gem and Jewellery. She can read, write and speak five languages, English, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and French. She is versatile in the Indian dance form Kuchipudi.