Minister of Tribal Affairs and Panchayati Raj

Vyricherla Kishore Chandra Suryanarayana Deo (born 15 February 1947) is an Indian politician and a member of the Indian National Congress political party. He has been elected to the Lok Sabha for five times, and has also held one term in the Rajya Sabha. Since July 2011, he is the Union Cabinet Minister for Tribal Affairs & Panchayati Raj.

Kishore Chandra Deo is a member of the Lok Sabha representing the Araku (ST) constituency in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. He has been a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) which is the highest decision-making body of the party. He was first elected to parliament in 1977 and has been elected to the Lok Sabha five times, and has also held one term in the Rajya Sabha (upper house of Parliament). On 12 July 2011 he was sworn in as a Cabinet Minister in the Union Cabinet, holding the portfolios of Tribal Affairs and Panchayati Raj.

He was also a Minister of State for Steel, Mines and Coal in the Central Cabinet in 1979-80. He has served on numerous parliamentary committees, and has been the chairperson of several key parliamentary committees, including the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill that led to the Forest Rights Act. He was also the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Undertakings (CoPU).

Kishore Chandra Deo was educated in Madras, he holds an M.A. degree in Political Science and a B.A. degree in Economics from Madras Christian College, Madras.