BJP warhorse, Ananth Kumar

Aiming for a High-Five

As a sixteen year old, BJP leader Ananth Kumar went to jail. And the rest is history. It was 1975, when the then Congress Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency in the country in the aftermath of the Allahabad High Court judgment unseating her. A firebrand activist of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), Ananth Kumar plunged into the rebellion and was imprisoned for 40 days in the Central Jail.

Ananth Kumar was born on 22 July 1959 in Bangalore, Karnataka to H.N. Narayan Shastry and Girija. He graduated in the faculty of Arts (B.A) from K.S.Arts College at Hubli affiliated to Karnatak University and later completed his bachelors in law (L.L.B) from J.S.S. Law College affiliated to the Mysore University. He is a voluntary member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

he strong man of BJP in Karnataka, in his early days was very much influenced by the ideology of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and naturally choose Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the students wings. During the Emergency he was imprisoned for almost 40 days.

Ananth Kumar's political innings got off to a flier a la Virender Sehwag. He was nominated as the State President of BJP Yuva Morcha in Karnataka, and became the National Secretary in 1996. A four-time MP from Bangalore south, he has served several portfolios as central minister viz. Civil Aviation, Tourism, Sports, Youth Affairs & Culture, Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation, and was the youngest minister in the Vajpayee government.

Apart from his political activities, Ananth Kumar is also Chief Patron of Adamya Chetana, Smt. Girija Shastry Memorial Trust, which has successfully undertaken many social welfare projects such as providing nutritious mid-day meal to 30,000 children of 150 schools, a mobile resource facility using innovative and formal methods to make learning fun for both the teacher and taught, adoption of Government schools to provide drinking water facility, building renovation, uniforms and health check-ups etc, and vocational training programmes for under-privileged especially girls and women.