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Syed Amin Jafri in Hyderabad
For M Venkaiah Naidu, there could not have been a better gift than the top post in the party on his 53rd birthday on Monday.
He is the third consecutive BJP president from the south and the second from Andhra Pradesh in the last three years.
Venkaiah Naidu is the youngest person and the first from the post-independence era to don the mantle of the BJP's leadership.
Incidentally, he is not a leader in the RSS mould, and has always been associated with the BJP.
A member of the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka state since April 1998 (his term comes to an end in 2004), Venkaiah Naidu has been secretary of the BJP Parliamentary Party, a member of the Central Election Committee and a key spokesman of the party.
Before to taking over as party chief, he had been serving as Union Minister for Rural Development since September 30, 2000.
Hailing from a predominantly agricultural family of Chavatapalem village in Nellore district on the Andhra Pradesh coast, Venkaiah Naidu is an arts graduate and has a degree in law from the Andhra University, Waltair.
After a stint as a student leader during the agitation for statehood for coastal Andhra that rocked the state during 1972-73, Venkaiah Naidu became the president of Andhra University Colleges Students Union during 1973-74.
Attracted by the 'JP' movement, he formed the Loknayak Jai Prakash Chhatra Sangharsha Samithi in Andhra Pradesh in 1974.
Not surprisingly, he was imprisoned under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) during the Emergency (1975-77).
When the Janata Party was formed on the eve of the 1977 general elections, he became the state president of Janata Yuva Morcha.
Contesting his maiden election as a Janata Party candidate, he was elected to the state assembly in 1978 from Udayagiri constituency in Nellore, his home district.
After a three-year stint as Janata Yuva Morcha president, he joined the BJP in 1980. He was among the three MLAs of the erstwhile Janata Party who broke away from the parent party in 1980, the other two being the late N S N Reddy and Vennela Sriramulu.
Venkaiah Naidu was re-elected to the state assembly in 1983.
He was the floor leader of the three-member BJP group in the state assembly during 1980-85.
His contemporaries in the assembly in those days included S Jaipal Reddy (who was then in the Janata Party), Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi (Majlis-e-Ittehaadul Muslimeen, now MP from Hyderabad), Ch Rajeshwar Rao (former CPI floor leader, now in the Telugu Desam Party), late Puchalapally Sundarayya (former CPI-M floor leader).
He came into prominence during August-September 1984 as one of the key leaders of the 'Save Democracy' movement launched by TDP founder N T Rama Rao after being toppled as chief minister.
Along with N Chandrababu Naidu and P Upendra (former Union minister, now in the Congress), he had masterminded the strategy that saw NTR regain his 'throne'.
This eventually resulted in an alliance between the TDP and the BJP during the 1984 Lok Sabha and 1985 assembly polls.
Though the BJP won one just Lok Sabha and eight assembly seats, Venkaiah Naidu tasted his first electoral defeat contesting from Udayagiri.
He got exposure to national politics when he served as the all-India vice-president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha during 1980-83.
After a three-year stint as the BJP's state general secretary during 1985-88, he had a long innings as the BJP state chief (1988-93).
Despite an alliance with the TDP, the BJP managed to win only five assembly seats in the 1989 election that saw NTR losing power in the state.
Later, his stint as the all-India general secretary of the BJP catapulted him to the national league.
Venkaiah Naidu lost the Lok Sabha polls from Bapatla constituency to a little-known Congress rival and former Member of Legislative Council (MLC) Salgala Benjamin.
1991 polls also proved unlucky as only one BJP MP (Bandaru Dattatreya) was elected from the state and Venkaiah Naidu lost again.
Incidentally, Venkaiah Naidu performed a hat-trick when he lost the third consecutive Lok Sabha election in 1996, this time to the MIM rival Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi from Hyderabad.
Venkaiah Naidu's coastal origin turned out to be his Achilles heel as he was considered a 'rank outsider' and a 'settler' from coastal Andhra trying to grab a prestigious constituency in Telangana region.
Venkaiah Naidu is a very good friend of Telugu Desam boss and Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and media baron Ramoji Rao. With his decade-long stay in Delhi, he has picked up Hindi. However, he does not have a mass following or popularity in his home state.
The Complete Coverage: Cabinet Reshuffle 2002
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