Kabindra Purkayastha (born 15 December 1931) is a politician and former union minister of state of India. He served as minister of state for communication in

Atal Bihari Vajpayee Atal Bihari Vajpayee (25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was an Indian poet, writer and statesman who served as the prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months from 1998 ...

government from 1998 to 1999. He is a senior leader of

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

in Assam, India. His son Kanad Purkayastha is a current

Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha A Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha (abbreviated: MP) is the representative of the States and union territories of India, Indian states to the upper house of the Parliament of India which is known as "Rajya Sabha" (constitutionally "Cou ...

from Assam.

Early Life

He was born in 1931 in Kamarkhal in

Sylhet district Sylhet District (), located in north-east Bangladesh, is one of the four districts in Sylhet Division, which contains Sylhet, the regional capital. History Sylhet District was established on 3 January 1782, and until 1878 it was part of Benga ...

now in Bangladesh and studied M.A. at

Gauhati University Gauhati University also known as GU, is a collegiate public state university located in Guwahati, Assam, India. It was established on 26 January 1948 under the provisions of an Act enacted by the Assam Legislative Assembly and is the oldest un ...

Political Career

He was first elected to

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

in 1991 from Silchar constituency in

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

. He was re-elected to the Lok Sabha in 1998 from the same constituency. In 2009, he was elected to the

15th Lok Sabha Members of the 15th Lok Sabha were elected during the 2009 general election in India. It was dissolved on 18 May 2014 by President Pranab Mukherjee.Indian National Congress-led United Progressive Alliance won 44 more seats than the previous 14t ...

, defeating heavyweight candidates

Santosh Mohan Dev Santosh Mohan Dev (1 April 1934 – 2 August 2017), was an Indian political leader and a key member of the Indian National Congress. Mr. Dev was first elected to the Parliament of India, Parliament in 1980, the first of his seven terms in offic ...

of INC and

Badruddin Ajmal Badruddin Ajmal (born 12 February 1950) is an Indian businessman, politician, philanthropist and Islamic theologian from the state of Assam. He is the state-president of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind for Assam. He was the Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha ...

of AUDF from

Silchar Silchar is a city and the headquarters of the Cachar district of the state of Assam, India. It is second largest city of Assam after Guwahati in terms of population and GDP. It is also administrative capital of Barak Valley division. It is locate ...

. But in 2014 LS-election, he was defeated by

Sushmita Dev Sushmita Dev (born 25 September 1972) is an Indian politician and member of Rajya Sabha from West Bengal, and belongs to the All India Trinamool Congress. Previously, she was elected to the Lok Sabha, lower house of the Parliament of India from ...

(INC), daughter of

, despite the Modi-wave in his favour. He has been awarded with honorary doctorate degree in September 2024 for his contribution to social life.

Notes

External links

People from Cachar district India MPs 2009–2014 1931 births Living people India MPs 1991–1996 India MPs 1998–1999 Lok Sabha members from Assam National Democratic Alliance candidates in the 2014 Indian general election Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Assam {{Assam-BJP-politician-stub