Konidela Siva Sankara Vara Prasad (born 22 August 1955), better known by his stage name Chiranjeevi, is an Indian film actor and politician. He was the Minister of State with independent charge for the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. Prior to politics, Chiranjeevi has attended the Madras Film Institute, and had worked primarily in Telugu cinema, in addition to Tamil, Kannada and Hindi films. He made his acting debut in 1978, with the film Punadhirallu.

In 2008, Chiranjeevi started Praja Rajyam, a political party in the state of Andhra Pradesh. At the launch, he stated that social justice was the main agenda of his party. In the 2009 general elections, the party won 18 of the 295 seats in the Andhra Pradesh State Assembly. He was elected a Member of the State Assembly from Tirupati.  He contested from both Tirupati and Palakollu Constituencies for MLA in the 2009 general elections, winning in Tirupati but losing out in Palakollu, in West-Godavari district.  On 6 February 2011, Chiranjeevi merged the 30-month-old Praja Rajyam Party with the Indian National Congress, after two weeks of talks with Sonia Gandhi, the president of the Congress, which feared the no confidence motion in the state assembly in the wake of the emergence of Jagan Mohan Reddy's YSR Congress Party and the stronghold of Telangana agitation. After more than one year of merging his party into Congress, he was nominated to Rajya Sabha on 29 March 2012. He got elected and took the oath as a Rajya Sabha member on 3 April 2012. On 28 October 2012, he was sworn in as the Union Minister of State (Independent charge), Ministry of Tourism, Government of India.  After the Indian National Congress split the state of Andhra pradesh leaving the residuary state with huge debt and little revenue in June 2014, most members of the Andhra Pradesh wing of Indian National Congress party left in protest. Chiranjeevi, however, remained with Indian National Congress and did campaign for Indian National Congress as chairman of election campaign committee for 2014 parliamentary and assembly elections in residuary state of Andhra Pradesh, however, he refrained from contesting in elections. There was also criticism that he did not campaign whole heartedly due to the one sided decision taken to split Andhra Pradesh. His youngest brother Pawan Kalyan, a former Praja Rajyam Party youth wing leader, launched his own political party Jana Sena and campaigned vigorously against Indian National Congress and in favor of Telugu Desham Party and Bharatiya Janata Party. Due to the strong anti-Indian National Congress sentiment prevailing in Andhra Pradesh, its candidates were defeated in all parliamentary and state assembly seats Andhra Pradesh with 165 out of 175 candidates losing deposit [obtaining less than 10% of vote share]. Since the 2014 elections, he has maintained distance from active politics and will also end his tenure as Rajya Sabha member in April , 2018. He has not attended any sessions of Indian National Congress either.

Is there anything else noteable about his political career?
His youngest brother Pawan Kalyan, a former Praja Rajyam Party youth wing leader, launched his own political party