NDA’s candidate for the Vice-presidential polls, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu is India’s next Vice President as Members of Parliament casted their vote today.
With NDA holding a majority in the Lok Sabha, it is easy to say that Venkaiah Naidu’s victory was inevitable even as the opposition fielded former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi against him.
Venkaiah Naidu is a prominent name in politics. He served as a Union Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Information and Broadcasting Minister and also a four term Rajya Sabha MP.
Born in 1949 in Andhra Pradesh, Venkaiah Naidu’s association with politics dates back to his student years in VR College where he holds a bachelor degree in politics. At a very young age, he became a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and joined ABVP in 1973 as a student leader.
Later, Mr Naidu acquired a degree in law from the Andhra University where he was chosen as the student president of the Andhra University Colleges and took charge of the agitation during the Jai Andhra movement in 1972 in Nellore.
Having participated in the movement against the emergency in 1975, Naidu was even imprisoned under the provisions of the Maintenance of Internal Security Act and later he became the President of the Youth Wing of Janata Party in AP from 1977 to 1980. Gaining immense popularity in the state, he was elected as an MLA to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly twice and was the President of AP state unit of BJP from 1988 to 1993.
Naidu then became the General Secretary of All India BJP from 1993 to September 2000. He was even elected as the Member of Rajya Sabha from Karnataka in 1988 and held the post of the party spokesperson from 1996 to 2000.
During the Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s governance, he held the portfolio of the Union Cabinet Minister for Rural Development and rose to the ranks of BJP National President in 2002. Despite getting selected for the second term in 2004, Naidu resigned following BJP’s loss in the 2004 general elections. However, he was re-elected to Rajya Sabha from Karnataka in 2004 and 2010 and made it to his fourth term in Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan in 2016 making him the vice presidential candidate with the most Rajya Sabha experience.
Venkaiah Naidu would take office after current Vice-President Hamid Ansari term expires on August 10.
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