Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu is an Indian politician hailing from Andhra Pradesh. He is a prominent leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party and has also served as the National President of the party from 2002 to 2004. Currently, he is serving as the Union Minister of Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Parliamentary Affairs in the Narendra Modi government. Earlier, he was the Union Cabinet Minister for Rural Development in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
Both as a student leader and political figure, Venkaiah 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 having served 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 has since been re-elected twice in 2004 and 2010 from Karnataka, which is the only stronghold of the BJP in Southern India. He was 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 the 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 Krishnamurthy as the National President of the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2002. On 28 January 2004, he was elected unopposed for a full 3-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 has remained in the forefront of the BJP as one of its senior vice-presidents and an important campaigner.
Following the historic victory of the BJP in the 2014 general elections, he has sworn is as the Minister for Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs on 26 May 2014.
Notwithstanding his stature and hectic schedules in national politics, Venkaiah did not cut off his roots in home town. He launched a social service organisation-Swarna Bharath Trust in Nellore serving the poor and needy. The trust runs a school for poor, orphan and special children. It imparts self-employment training programmes especially for women and youth.
Urban Development Minister, M. Venkaiah Naidu, picked up the broom to clean cyclone-hit port city of Visakhapatnam in southern state of Andhra Pradesh, as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cleanliness campaign.
Positions held
1973–74 : President, Students Union, Andhra University
1974 : Convener, Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Yuvajana Chatra Sangharsha Samiti, Andhra Pradesh
1977–80 : President, Youth Wing of Janata Party, Andhra Pradesh
1978–85 : Member, Legislative Assembly, Andhra Pradesh (2 terms)
1980–85 : Leader, B.J.P Legislative Party in Andhra Pradesh
1985–88 : general secretary, Andhra Pradesh State B.J.P.
1988-93 : President, Andhra Pradesh State B.J.P.
1993 – September 2000 : National general secretary, Bharatiya Janata Party
Secretary, B.J.P. Parliamentary Board
Secretary, B.J.P. Central Election Committee
Spokesperson of the B.J.P.
1998-2014 : Member, Rajya Sabha from Karnataka (3 terms)
30 Sep 2000 to 1 July 2002 : Minister of Rural Development, Government of India
1 July 2002 to 5 October 2004 : National President, Bharatiya Janata Party
April 2005 onwards : National Vice-President, Bharatiya Janata Party.
26 May 2014: Union minister of urban development and parliamentary affairs