Venkaiah Naidu

Early life

Naidu was born on 1st July 1949 at Chavatapalem, in the Nellore district of the Indian State of Andhra Pradesh. He completed schooling from Zila Parshad High School, Butchireddy palem(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. 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. He was re-elected twice, in 2004 and 2010, from Karnataka. 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. 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.'

He succeeded Jana Krishnamurthi as the National President of the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2003. On 28 January 2004, he was elected unopposed for a full three-year term. 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. 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. 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.. He obtained 516 votes against UPA candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi, who received 244 votes.

Positions held