T. G. Venkatesh (born 16 May 1950) or Tumbalam Gooty Venkatesh is an Indian businessman and politician. He served as a

Member of the Legislative Assembly A Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected to sit in a legislative assembly. The term most commonly refers to members of the legislature of a federated state or an autonomous region, but is also used for several nation ...

(MLA) in the

Legislative Assembly of Andhra Pradesh The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly ( Telugu: ఆంధ్రప్రదేశ్ శాసన సభ, ISO: ''Āndhra Pradēś Śāsana Sabha'') is the lower house of the bicameral legislature of the Indian state, Andhra Pradesh. The Le ...

from 1999 to 2004 and from 2009 to 2014. He was Minister for Minor Irrigation under the administration of

Kiran Kumar Reddy Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy (born 13 September 1960) is an Indian politician who served as the 16th Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh between 25 November 2010 and 1 March 2014. He was the last Chief Minister of the Andhra Pradesh before the format ...

. He has been a member of the

Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

since 2016.

Early life

Venkatesh was born to T. G. Gopal Setty and T. G. Gowramma on 16 May 1950 in

Madanapalli Madanapalle is a city in Annamayya district and Rajampet Lok Sabha constituency of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a Selection Grade Municipality and largest City in Annamayya District. Madanapalle is headquarters of Madanapalle Man ...

, Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh. He did his

BCom A Bachelor of Commerce (BCom or B Com) is an undergraduate degree in commerce, accounting, mathematics, economics, and management-related subjects. The degree is mainly offered in Commonwealth nations. Structure Bachelor of Commerce The Bach ...

from

Sri Venkateswara University Sri Venkateswara University (commonly referred as S. V. University or SVU) is a public state university located in Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, India. The university is named after Lord Venkateswara, whose shrine is located in the city. The un ...

Adoni Adoni or Adavani is a city in the Kurnool district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a municipality and the headquarters of Adoni mandal, administered under the Adoni Revenue Division. In the 2011 census of India, Adoni had a popul ...

. He married T. G. Swarajya Lakshmi Kumari on 22 February 1973. The couple have two daughters and a son, T. G. Bharath. Bharath contested as an MLA, through TDP, in the 2019 election and lost to

Abdul Hafeez Khan Mohammed Abdul Hafeez Khan is an Indian politician from Andhra Pradesh. He has been a member of the YSR Congress Party since 2011 and represented Kurnool Constituency in 2019 as a member of legislative assembly. He won the 2019 Andhra Pradesh e ...

from

YSRCP The Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (, YSRCP or YCP), often shortened to simply the YSR Congress Party, is an Indian regional political party based in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The party was initially registered with Election Commissi ...

. His nephew, T. G. Vishwa Prasad, is a prominent film producer in

Telugu cinema Telugu cinema, also known as Tollywood, is the segment of Cinema of India, Indian cinema dedicated to the production of Film, motion pictures in the Telugu language, widely spoken in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Based in Film N ...

and owns the production house, People Media Factory, in

Hyderabad, Telangana Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much of Hyderabad is sit ...

Business career

After having successfully started a caustic soda factory called Sree Rayalaseema Alkalies and Allied Chemicals, Venkatesh diversified into manufacturing high-strength

calcium hypochlorite Calcium hypochlorite is an inorganic compound with chemical formula , also written as . It is a white solid, although commercial samples appear yellow. It strongly smells of chlorine, owing to its slow decomposition in moist air. This compound is ...

, power projects, wind power, manufacturing animal vaccines, large-scale salt producing units, movie theatres and star hotels, spread over Andhra Pradesh,

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

and

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

. He was for some time the chairman of the Andhra Pradesh State Trading Corporation.

Political career

Venkatesh stood successfully in the Kurnool constituency as a

Telugu Desam Party The Telugu Desam Party (TDP; ) is an Indian regional political party primarily active in the Federated state, states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It was founded by Telugu cinema, Telugu matinée idol N. T. Rama Rao (NTR) on 29 March 1982 a ...

(TDP) candidate in the 1999 state assembly elections, with V. Rambhupal Chowdary of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

being his nearest rival. In the 2004 elections, standing in the same constituency for the same party, he came second to M. Abdul Gafoor of the

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)) is a Communism in India, communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party in India in terms of membership and electora ...

. He joined the INC later that year and as a candidate for that party he beat Gafoor in the elections of 2009. Objecting to the

bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh The Telangana movement refers to the movement for the separation of Telangana, from the pre-existing state of Andhra Pradesh in India. The new state corresponds to the Telugu-speaking portions of the former princely state of Hyderabad, which w ...

, which would create a separate state of

Telangana Telangana is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated in the Southern India, south-central part of the Indian subcontinent on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, ele ...

, Venkatesh switched his support back to the TDP in March 2014, following a path recently taken by several other prominent INC politicians. He again stood in Kurnool as a TDP candidate in

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

, finishing second to S. V. Mohan Reddy of the

YSR Congress Party The Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (, YSRCP or YCP), often shortened to simply the YSR Congress Party, is an Indian Regionalism (politics), regional political party based in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The party was initially registere ...

. He has been a TDP member of the Rajya Sabha representing Andhra Pradesh since June 2016. In 2013, while Minister for Minor Irrigation, Venkatesh promised to support the Arya Vysya community in Andhra Pradesh, suggesting that they had lost their way politically and that they needed to develop their trading capability. In September 2017, Venkatesh suggested that

Kancha Ilaiah Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd (born 5 October 1952) is an Indian political theorist, writer and a Dalit rights activist. He is a former professor of political science at Osmania University and was the Director of the Centre for the Study of Social Exc ...

was a traitor and should be hanged. He believed that Ilaiah's book, titled ''Samajika Smugglurlu Komatollu'', should be banned as it incited both religious and

caste A caste is a Essentialism, fixed social group into which an individual is born within a particular system of social stratification: a caste system. Within such a system, individuals are expected to marry exclusively within the same caste (en ...

-based hatred. In 2012, he had courted controversy by suggesting that under-performing members of the

Indian Administrative Service The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the Public administration, administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. The IAS is one of the three All India Services along with the Indian Police Service (IPS) and the Indian ...

(IAS) should be shot, which some people considered to be an incitement to murder. He subsequently claimed that it was a figure of speech and that he would retract it if IAS officers admitted their incompetence. On 20 June 2019 he joined BJP as TDP has lost in 2019 election.

References

External links

TGV Group homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Venkatesh, T. G. Living people Indian National Congress politicians from Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh MLAs 1999–2004 Rajya Sabha members from Andhra Pradesh Telugu Desam Party politicians Indian industrialists 1950 births People from Kurnool Politicians from Kurnool district Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh MLAs 2009–2014 Businesspeople from Andhra Pradesh