In 1921, he entered politics. He was elected to the Madras Legislative Council as an outstanding educationalist. For a short while he was in the Justice party. The Justice Party (India) found him far too brilliant and individualistic for keeping proper party control over him. In 1926 January, when it was decided to establish Andhra University at Waltaire, Reddy was the natural choice for appointment as its first Vice-Chancellor. He made Andhra University a great centre of higher education and outstanding research in both sciences and humanities. Towards the end of 1930, he did the extraordinary thing of resigning his Vice-Chancellorship in protest against the repressive policy of the Government of India in arresting the great leaders of Congress Salt Satyagraha movement. He wrote a classic letter in this context to the Governor of Madras. When he resigned his post as Vice-Chancellor, he was succeeded by Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.