Venkaiah Naidu’s Odyssey

On August 5, 2017, Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu, NDA’s candidate, defeating Opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi, was elected the 13th Vice-President of India. He was sworn-in as Vice-President of India on August 11, 2017. Shri Naidu is the third Telugu person to have occupied the key constitutional post after Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and V. V. Giri.  The veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader was handling the portfolios of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Information and Broadcasting in Narendra Modi-led NDA government. It is worth mentioning here that weeks before his nomination was announced by the BJP, inquisitive reporters at a party function in May asked him whether he was in the race to be the Rashtrapati or Uprashtrapati. In his characteristic wordplay, Naidu said he was happy being Ushapati – the husband of Usha, his wife.

A student leader and a vociferous orator, Shri Naidu is prominent personality in the Indian politics. He has been interested in politics since childhood. The plight of the common man, poor and the downtrodden are very well understood by Shri Naidu. He has worked hard for the people of his community and launched several schemes and a social service organisation “Swarna Bharath Trust” to serve the poor and the downtrodden of his home town Nellore. He works poignantly for the concerns of the common man since his lower class family root enables him to empathise with the common man.

M.Venkaiah Naidu was born on July 1st, 1949 to the late Rangaiah Naidu and Smt. Ramanamma. He was born to agriculturist parents at Chavatapalem, a remote village in the Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh. On 14th July,1971 Shri. Venkaiah Naidu married Smt. Usha and they are blessed with a daughter and a son. He attended V.R. High School, Nellore. He pursued Bachelors degree in politics and diplomatic studies from V.R. College. From Andhra University College of Law, Visakhapatnam , Shri Naidu later on acquired a Bachelors degree in law with specialization in International Law. Being a vociferous orator he joined the BJP in his college days and was a swayamsevak in Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

An intelligent and effective communicator steeped in RSS-BJP ideology, Shri Naidu rose from the ranks to become the party President and a Union Minister to finally be India’s Vice President. Shri Naidu has been a trouble-shooter for the government as also one of its best communicators with his attractive one-liners. He has friends across political parties. It will help him as Chairman of the Rajya Sabha where the BJP has just got a majority of its own. Shri Naidu is quick to respond to criticism from the Opposition. He has handled key organisational assignments in the BJP and became its President in 2002.

He was Rural Development Minister during the first NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, his inspiration along with senior party leader L.K. Advani. With Modi scripting BJP’s success in 2014, Naidu described him as the most popular Indian leader, the most credible political personality and among the top 10 leaders of the world. He is credited with coining the acronym MODI – Making Of Developed India.

By Uday India Bureau