Venur Dhananjay Kumar Alva (4 July 19514 March 2019) was a former Union and Cabinet minister of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and a former Member of Parliament from

Mangalore Mangaluru (), formerly called Mangalore ( ), is a major industrial port city in the Indian state of Karnataka and on the west coast of India. It is located between the Laccadive Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bengaluru, the st ...

. He was cabinet minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism in 1996, Union Minister of State for Finance from 1999 to 2000 and Union Minister of State for Textiles from 2000 to 2003. He was also one of the first few BJP MPs to be elected from south India, at a time when the Congress party's reach was at its peak. Kumar went on to represent the Mangalore constituency in the

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 ...

for four successive terms. Earlier in 1983, he was elected as a BJP MLA from Mangalore City assembly constituency comfortably defeating sitting MLA from Congress, P. F. Rodrigues, even before he became an MP. Being a staunch loyalist of former

Chief Minister of Karnataka The Chief minister (India), chief minister of Karnataka is the Head of government, chief executive officer of the Government of Karnataka, government of the Indian state of Karnataka. As per the Constitution of India, the governor of Karnatak ...

B. S. Yeddyurappa, he was elected as the president of the new Karnataka Janata Party. He was the Special representative of the Government of Karnataka to the Union Government in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

Biography

Born in

Venur Venur or Vēnooru is a small village on the banks of the Phalguni river in Belthangady Taluk, Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka, India. It was once the seat of Jainism and the capital of the Ajila Dynasty. It is on the Dharmasthala- Mooda ...

, a small town of erstwhile

South Canara South Canara (South Kannada) was a district of the Madras Presidency of British Raj, located at . It comprised the towns of Kassergode and Udipi and adjacent villages, with the administration at Mangalore city. South Canara was one of the mos ...

in 1951, Kumar earned degrees in science from Sri Mahaveera College, Moodabidri and law from

Udupi Udupi () also known as 'Odipu' () is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is the administrative headquarters of Udupi district, and one of the fastest-growing cities in Karnataka. Udupi is one of the top tourist attractions in Karnataka an ...

Law College and held a number of influential positions in a political career that spanned decades. A firm believer of the RSS' Hindutva ideology, Kumar began his political career in the youth wing of

Bharatiya Janta Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Since 2014, ...

and later went on to become a Member of the

Karnataka Legislative Assembly The Karnataka Legislative Assembly (formerly the Mysore Legislative Assembly) is the lower house of the bicameral legislature of the southern Indian state of Karnataka. Karnataka is one of the six states in India where the state legislature ...

in 1983. In 1991, he was elected to the 10th Lok Sabha defeating the Congress stalwart Janardhana Poojary, Union Minister of State for Finance during the tenure of

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 un ...

and

Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi (20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian statesman and pilot who served as the prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the Assassination of Indira Gandhi, assassination of his mother, then–prime ...

. With the rise of the

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 ...

, Kumar went on to represent the

Mangalore (Lok Sabha constituency) Mangalore Lok Sabha constituency was one of the Lok Sabha constituencies in Karnataka state in southern India. With the implementation of the boundary delimitation, delimitation of parliamentary constituencies in 2008, based on the recommendatio ...

for four successive terms and served as Union Minister, thrice in the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

when the Bharatiya Janata Party was in power. He was cabinet minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism in 1996, Union Minister of State for Finance from 1999 to 2000 and Union Minister of State for Textiles from 2000 to 2003. Despite being a sitting MP, he was denied ticket for 2004 Loksabha election from

, instead D. V. Sadananda Gowda was preferred. During Yeddyurappa's tenure as chief minister between 2008 and 2011, Kumar became the State party head. He was known for being staunchly loyal to BJP state president BS Yeddyurappa. After leaving the saffron party with B. S. Yeddyurappa, a former chief minister of Karnataka, Kumar was instrumental in starting a new political outfit, Karnataka Janata Party. Dhananjay was even made the state president of the party. He was unable to actively participate due to ill health. Kumar died at Unity Hospital in Mangalore on 4 March 2019 after a prolonged illness due to kidney problem.;

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kumar, Dhananjay Janata Dal (Secular) politicians 1951 births 2019 deaths Politicians from Mangalore Mangaloreans India MPs 1991–1996 India MPs 1996–1997 India MPs 1998–1999 India MPs 1999–2004 Lok Sabha members from Karnataka Civil aviation ministers of India Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Karnataka Karnataka Janata Paksha politicians