Aruvanpalli Puthiyapurayil Abdullakkutty (born 8 May 1967) is an Indian politician. He was elected as the National Vice President of the

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 ...

on 26 September 2020. He has also served as the BJP Vice President of

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

state. He is also a former member of

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 ...

from

Kannur Kannur (), formerly known in English as Cannanore, is a city and Municipal corporation (India), municipal corporation in the state of Kerala, India. It is the administrative headquarters of the Kannur district and situated north of the maj ...

and former MLA from

constituency of Kerala state. Abdullakutty was appointed National Haj Committee chairman 22 April 2022.

Early life and politics

He was a leader during his college days, Abdullakutty became the General Secretary of Calicut University Students' Union in 1989. He served as Member of the Kannur District Panchayat from 1995 to 1999. He was elected to Parliament from Kannur Lok Sabha constituency twice (1999–2009) and was one of the youngest MPs of the country during that time. In 2008, he praised Gujarat Chief Minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

, and was expelled from CPI(M) in 2009. He subsequently joined INC. He represented the Kannur Lok Sabha constituency of

in the 13th and 14th Lok Sabha (two terms) and was a Member of

Kerala Legislative Assembly The Kerala Legislative Assembly, popularly known as the Kerala Niyamasabha, is the State Assembly of Kerala, one of the 30 states in India. The Assembly is formed by 140 elected representatives. Each elected member represents one of the 140 ...

from 2009 to 2016. During May 2019, in a Facebook post, Abdullakutty praised some of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's schemes, such as the Swachh Bharat Mission (cleanliness drive), and the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana for free LPG connection. He added that the "NDA's victory was an acceptance of Prime Minister Modi's development agenda and the secret of his success was that he adopted Gandhian values", and further stated that "Through 'Swacchhta Bharat' PM gave toilets to 9.26 crore families, also gave free LPG connections to six crore families." After Abdullakutty's favorable appraisal of the prime minister, he was expelled from his party, the Indian National Congress (INC) in June 2019. After a meeting with

and BJP President Amit Shah on 24 June 2019, Abdullakutty was invited to join the BJP, and he formally joined BJP on 26 June 2019. Abdullakutty received the BJP membership from party working president J. P. Nadda, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, V. Muraleedharan, Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Minister of Steel, Bhupender Yadav, Member of Parliament in 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 ...

and National General Secretary of the BJP, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP (Upper house) and the vice-chairman of the

wing of

-led coalition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was among those present to greet him. He contested as NDA candidate in 2021 Malappuram Lok Sabha by-election against IUML Candidate M P AbduSamad Samadani and SFI national president VP Sanu and lost in a big margin.

Controversies

On 17 January 2009, CPI(M) Mayyil Area committee suspended Abdullakutty from the party for one year for praising the then Gujarat Chief Minister

's Gujarat development model. On 11 March 2014, Kerala Police registered an FIR against Kannur MLA AP Abdullakutty on rape charges based on the complaint filed by solar scam accused Saritha S Nair on Monday. In her complaint Saritha Nair alleged that she was raped by Abdullakutty at Mascot hotel in

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram ( ), also known as Trivandrum, is the Capital city, capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. As of 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had a population of 957,730 over an area of 214.86 sq. km, making it the ...

prior to her arrest in the solar scam. Cantonment women's police in Thiruvananthapuram said that no date or time of the incident is mentioned in her complaint.

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Abdullakutty, A. P. Living people 1967 births Politicians from Kannur 21st-century Indian Muslims India MPs 1999–2004 India MPs 2004–2009 Malayali politicians Indian National Congress politicians from Kerala Lok Sabha members from Kerala Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Kerala Kerala MLAs 2011–2016 Kerala MLAs 2006–2011 Communist Party of India (Marxist) politicians from Kerala