India today elected Venkaiah Naidu as its next vice-president.
He got 516 votes against opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi's 244
A four-term Rajya Sabha member, Naidu was the minister of urban development, housing and urban poverty alleviation and information and broadcasting in the Narendra Modi cabinet before the ruling NDA announced him as its vice presidential candidate.
Born in the coastal district of Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, Naidu was a swayamsevak with the RSS and later joined student politics.
For the first time Naidu came to limelight in 1972 during Jai Andhra movement. It didn't take him much time to get the ranks of President, Students’ Union, V.R. College, Nellore in 1971.
Advertisement
Elected as president of student union at VR College in Nellore, he rose to become the president or Janata Party’s youth wing in 1977.
Since the begining, Naidu, as a student leader and political figure, made a name for working towards farmers' and the development of backward areas. With his brilliant oratory, Naidu stood apart from other and became one of the most popular BJP leaders in Andhra Pradesh.
Naidu was first elected as an MLA to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly twice from Udayagiri constituency in Nellore district in 1978. He again served as an MLA in 1983.
He was union minister for rural development in the Vajpayee government and has also served BJP’s national president from 2002 to 2004.
