Venkaiah Naidu

Venkaiah Naidu
वेंकैया नायडू
13th Vice-President of India
Assumed office
11 August 2017
President Ram Nath Kovind
Preceded by Mohammad Hamid Ansari
Minister of Information and Broadcasting
In office
5 July 2016 – 17 July 2017
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Preceded by Arun Jaitley
Succeeded by Smriti Irani
Minister of Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation
In office
26 May 2014 – 17 July 2017
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Preceded by Kamal Nath (Urban Development)
Girija Vyas (Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation)
Succeeded by Narendra Singh Tomar
Minister of Parliamentary Affairs
In office
26 May 2014 – 5 July 2016
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Preceded by Kamal Nath
Succeeded by Ananth Kumar
President of the Bharatiya Janata Party
In office
1 July 2002 – 5 October 2004
Preceded by Jana Krishnamurthi
Succeeded by L. K. Advani
Minister for Rural Development
In office
30 September 2000 – 30 June 2002
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Preceded by Sunder Lal Patwa
Succeeded by Kashiram Rana (2003)
Member of the Rajya Sabha
for Rajasthan
In office
5 July 2016 – 10 August 2017(resigned)
Preceded by Anand Sharma
Member of the Rajya Sabha
for Karnataka
In office
1998–2016
Preceded by H. D. Deve Gowda
Succeeded by Nirmala Sitharaman
Member of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly
for Udayagiri
In office
1978–1985
Preceded by ???
Succeeded by Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy
Personal details
Born Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu
(1949-07-01) 1 July 1949
Chavatapalem, Nellore District, Madras Province, India
(now in Andhra Pradesh, India)
Political party Bharatiya Janata Party
Other political
affiliations		 National Democratic Alliance
Spouse(s) M. Usha (m. 1971)
Children 2
Alma mater Andhra University
Signature

Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu (born 1 July 1949) is the Vice-President of India, in office since 2017. Previously, Naidu served as the Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Urban Development and Information and Broadcasting in the Modi Cabinet.[1] A prominent leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, he also served as its national president from 2002 to 2004.[2] Earlier, he was the Union Cabinet Minister for Rural Development in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.[3][4]

He took oath as Vice-President of India on 11 August 2017 at Darbar Hall, Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi.

Early life

Naidu was born on 1 July 1949 at Chavatapalem, in the Nellore district of the Indian State of Andhra Pradesh.[5] He completed schooling from V. R. High School, Nellore, and pursued his bachelor's degree in politics and diplomatic studies from V. R. College. Later, he acquired a bachelor's degree in law with specialisation in international law from Andhra University College of Law, Visakhapatnam.[6][7] He was a swayamsevak in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and joined ABVP during his college days.He was elected as the president of the students union of colleges affiliated to the Andhra University. He came into spotlight for his prominent role in the Jai Andhra Movement of 1972. While Kakani Venkata Ratnam led the movement from Vijayawada, Naidu took active part in the agitation in Nellore, until it was called off a year later.

In 1974, he became the convener of the anti-corruption Jayaprakash Narayan Chhatra Sangharsh Samiti of Andhra Pradesh. He took to streets in protest against the emergency and was imprisoned. From 1977–80, he was president of its youth wing.

Political career as leader

Both as a student leader and political figure, Naidu gained prominence as a brilliant orator, who vigorously championed the cause of the farmers and the development of backward areas. His oratory skills and political activism propelled his political career and he was elected as an MLA to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly twice from Udayagiri constituency in Nellore district in 1978 and 1983. He rose to become one of the most popular leaders of the BJP in Andhra Pradesh.

After serving in various organisational posts of the BJP at the state and national level, he was elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka in 1998.[8] He was re-elected twice, in 2004 and 2010, from Karnataka.[9][10] He served as the party spokesperson from 1996 to 2000, bringing to the job his panache for quirky alliterations and similes. Unlike most politicians from southern India, Naidu made an effort to master Hindi, going on to address public rallies in northern India.

After the NDA victory in the 1999 general elections, he became the Union Cabinet Minister for Rural Development in the government headed by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.[11] He was known for aggressively pushing for reforms in rural development and for the many schemes introduced during this period such as the 'Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.'[12][13][14]

He succeeded Jana Krishnamurthi as the National President of the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2003.[15] On 28 January 2004, he was elected unopposed for a full three-year term.[16] After the defeat of the BJP-led NDA in the 2004 general elections, he resigned from his post on 18 October 2004 and was succeeded by L. K. Advani.[17] However, he remained at the forefront of the BJP as one of its senior vice-presidents and an important campaigner. Naidu raised Special Status to Andhra Pradesh issue in Rajya Sabha (as opposition member in February 2014) and demanded special category state status to AP. The Prime Minister agreed to it, though it was not included in the AP Reorganisation Act-2

Following the historic victory of the BJP in the 2014 general elections, he was sworn as the Minister for Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs on 26 May 2014.

Naidu is also involved with the Swarna Bharat Trust, a social service organization founded by him in Nellore.[18] The trust runs a school for poor, orphaned and special-needs children and imparts self-employment training programs, especially for women and youth.

He was nominated by the BJP on 29 May 2016 for the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan and was elected.

On 5 July 2016, he concurrently served as Minister of Information and Broadcasting. A year later, he resigned from both offices to contest the 2017 Vice-President election. He won the election to become India's 13th Vice President.[19]. He obtained 516 votes against UPA candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi, who received 244 votes.

Positions held

References

Political offices
Preceded by
Sunder Lal Patwa		 Minister of Rural Development
2000–2002 		Vacant
Title next held by
Kashiram Rana
Preceded by
Kamal Nath		 Minister of Parliamentary Affairs
2014–2016 		Succeeded by
Ananth Kumar
Minister of Urban Development
2014–2017 		Succeeded by
Narendra Singh Tomar
Preceded by
Girija Vyas		 Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation
2014–2017
Preceded by
Arun Jaitley		 Minister of Information and Broadcasting
2016–2017 		Succeeded by
Smriti Irani
Preceded by
Mohammad Hamid Ansari		 Vice President of India
2017–present 		Incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by
Jana Krishnamurthi		 President of the Bharatiya Janata Party
2002–2004 		Succeeded by
L. K. Advani
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