K C Venugopal

Personal life

He was born on 4 February 1963 to Kunjukrishnan and Janaki Amma in Kannur District of Kerala.

Political life

He came to active politics through the Student Movement of the Indian National Congress. He became the State President of the Kerala Students Union and State President of the Indian Youth Congress, He was elected to the Kerala Legislative Assembly from Alappuzha Constituency in 1996,2001 and 2006. He served as the Minister for Dewaswom and Tourism in the Oommen Chandy Ministry from 2004-06. He Contested to the General Elections to Loksabha from Alappuzha Constituency in 2009 and won with a good margin.

For Mr. Venugopal, Kannur has not been his political gravitational field ever since he politically relocated himself to Alappuzha following his election victory from the Alappuzha Assembly constituency in 1996. His success in the two Assembly elections in 2001 and 2006 and his election to the Lok Sabha in the 2009 Parliament election have only completed the process of his political expatriation.

However, he always kept in touch with his home district. The 48-year-old Congress leader, who served as Minister for Tourism and Devaswom in the United Democratic Front (UDF) government during 2004-06, began his political career when he was a student of the Payyanur College.

Since then he has been on a right trajectory of political career in his party. From being a president of the Payyanur College unit of the Kerala Students Union (KSU) to his induction in the Union Cabinet, it was a long journey for a leader of his age. In between he served as State president of the KSU (1987–92) and the Youth Congress (1992–2000), among others.

A post-graduate in mathematics, Mr. Venugopal owes his rapid political evolution to the late leader K. Karunakaran. His loyalty to the leader when the latter was at the helm of Congress affairs in the State helped him step on the political ladder without much ado. Mr. Venugopal was also a volleyball player during his college days. He played for the Payyanur College and the Calicut University.

Mr. Venugopal's supporters say that though he has moved to Alappuzha, he took personal interest in various tourism projects in his home district when he was Tourism Minister. The Town Square, the renovated Gandhi Park at Payyanur, approval of the proposals for development of beaches in the district and the eco-tourism project for Paithalmala are some among them, they say.

On 29th of april, 2017 he was chosen as general secretary of All India Congress Committee.

Detection of possible Air India Ticketing Scam

In a huge embarrassment for Air India, Minister of state for civil aviation K.C. Venugopal detected a probable ticket scam and busted it almost single-handedly while travelling on one of the airline's flights. Venugopal was travelling to Kochi on a Delhi-Kochi-Thiruvananthapuram flight on 4 January when he noticed as many as 23 vacant seats on board. He decided to inquire into the reason behind the vacant seats as a Kerala minister was denied a seat on the same flight due to "non-availability of tickets". But when he asked for the passenger list, the crew failed to produce one. Venugopal then instructed his office to file a formal complaint with the chairman and managing director of the airline, Rohit Nandan. Air India launched an inquiry into the complaint and by 10 January, two officers from customer service were suspended from duty.