Born in a farmer’s family at Korapalli village near Jammikunta, Karimnagar Dt., Muralidhar Rao had his education up to graduation in Warangal. He had his postgraduate education in Osmania University and obtained M.A. (Philosophy) in 1985 and M.Phil. in 1986.

Muralidhar Rao joined the RSS at a very young age. He led Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) first in Warangal and later in Hyderabad. He was elected as General Secretary of Osmania University Students’ Union in 1984. He was instrumental in weaning away a large number of youth from the violent politics of leftwing extremism during 1980s in north Telangana. Naxals made an attack on his life by firing at point blank range in November 1986 right in Osmania University Campus.

His north India sojourn began in 1987 when the ABVP deputed him to Rajasthan. He had shown remarkable skills in organizing the students and won the laurels of late Bhairom Singh Shekawat. When there were pressing demands from the turbulent state of Jammu & Kashmir because of the insurgency, the ABVP moved him to Jammu & Kashmir in 1991. He rallied the youth and students against fundamentalist forces. He made several visits to Srinagar incognito despite threats to his life from jihadists.

When the Dunkel proposals threatened the developing world and globalization began to rob the poorer sections, he assisted Shri Dattopant Thengadi and Shri Madan Das, senior functionaries of the RSS, along with Sri S.Gurumurthy in floating and organizing Swadeshi Jagarn Manch (SJM), a movement to protect the Indian rural economy against the onslaught of globalization. In his capacity as National Convener of SJM for over 16 years (1993-2008) he crisscrossed the country several times and built a robust Swadeshi movement. During this period he had established a very good rapport with leaders like Chandrasekhar, George Fernadez etc. outside Sangh Parivar.

For several years he has been working to get justice to the victims of Gulf-Migration, turmeric farmers, beedi-labour, weavers and victims of Singareni opencast mining of North Telangana.

Muralidhar Rao joined BJP in January 2009 as attaché to President Rajnath Singh. In 2010 he was made national secretary by Shri Nitin Gadkari and was put in-charge of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. During the past three years he concentrated on bringing the deprived sections closer to BJP. He took up the issues of fishermen, worst affected by globalization, and organized three regional conventions, for east coast at Visakhapatnam, for west coast at Mangalore for inland fishermen at Varanasi. His three day hunger strike in Hyderabad in December 2011 to focus the miserable plight of weavers of Andhra Pradesh infused confidence and hope in the community. He had also organized a national convention on weavers at New Delhi in May 2012. He worked as co-convener of the Jana Chetana Yatra undertaken by Shri L.K.Advani in 2011 against corruption.