Jeevaraj Alva (18 April 1947 – 12 February 2001) was an Indian politician from the State of

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 ...

. He held multiple portfolios such as Kannada and culture, youth affairs and sports, higher education and information in the

government of Karnataka The Government of Karnataka, abbreviated as GoK or GoKA, formerly known as Government of Mysore (1956–1974), is a democratically elected state body with the governor as the ceremonial head to govern the Southwest Indian state of Karnataka ...

. Alva was serving as vice-president of the

Janata Dal (United) Janata Dal (United) ("People's Party (United)"), abbreviated as JD(U), is a Social democracy, social-democratic and secular List of political parties in India, Indian political party, rooted mainly in East India, eastern and Northeast India, ...

when he died in 2001, aged 53.

Early life

Alva was born into a middle-class family which hailed from the coastal

Canara Kanara or Canara, also known as Karāvali, is the historically significant stretch of land situated by the southwestern Konkan coast of India, alongside the Arabian Sea in the present-day Indian state of Karnataka. The subregion comprises thr ...

region of

and belonged to the Tulu-speaking

Bunt Bunt may refer to: People * Darrell Bunt (1902–1977), Royal Navy chaplain * Dick Bunt (1929–2021), American basketball player * Raymond Bunt (born 1944), Pennsylvania politician * Bunt Stephens (John L. Stephens, 1889–1951), or Uncle Bunt ...

community. He was born on 18 April 1947 in

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 ...

, a part of the erstwhile

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency or Madras Province, officially called the Presidency of Fort St. George until 1937, was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India and later the Dominion of India. At its greatest extent, the presidency i ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. His father,

K. Nagappa Alva Kodman Nagappa Alva (18 October 1908 – 3 October 1996) was an Indian physician and politician from the State of Karnataka. As a politician, he served as Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha, the upper House of the Parliament of India, and ...

, was also a politician and he once headed the state unit 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 ...

. Alva was a trained physician from

St. John's Medical College St. John's National Academy of Health Sciences is a private university, private medical school, medical college and hospital situated in Bengaluru, India. It is part of the St. John's National Academy of Health Sciences run by the Catholic Bis ...

, Bangalore. While still in college, in 1976, he was "provoked into joining politics" by

Jayaprakash Narayan Jayaprakash Narayan Srivastava (; 11 October 1902 – 8 October 1979), also known as JP and ''Lok Nayak'' (Hindi for "People's leader"), was an Indian politician, theorist and Indian independence activist, independence activist. He is mai ...

, led by former Chief Minister of Mysore (now Karnataka),

D. Devaraj Urs Devaraj Devaraj Arasu (20 August 1915 – 6 June 1982) was an Indian politician who served two terms as the Chief Minister of Karnataka (1972–77, 1978–80). He is also the longest serving List of chief ministers of Karnataka, Chief Minister ...

, into the

JP movement The Bihar movement, also known as the JP movement, was a political movement initiated by students in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Bihar against misrule and corruption in the government of Bihar, state government, in ...

Career

Hegde was a colleague of Jeevaraj Alva's father,

, when the two were a part of the Second Nijalingappa ministry. Jeevaraj then went on to become a close confidante of Hegde, who called him a ''sanghathana chatura'' (able organiser), and served as minister when in his cabinet. Alva was first elected to 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 1978, when he contested Jayamahal. He contested with a

Janata Party The Janata Party (JP, ) is an unrecognised political party in India. Navneet Chaturvedi is the current president of the party since November 2021, replacing Jaiprakash Bandhu. The JP was established as an amalgam of Indian political partie ...

ticket and was elected as the youngest member of the assembly. He was re-elected twice from the same constituency, and subsequently from

Malleshwaram Malleshwaram is a northwest neighbourhood and one of the zones of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike in Bengaluru, India. It was planned in 1889 after the great plague of 1898, developed as a suburb in 1892 and handed over to the city munici ...

and

Chickpet Chikkapete is a neighborhood in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. It is one of the city's oldest areas and is famous for its Wholesale & Retail Cloths Shops. It is near the Electric Market area in Bangalore and is a part of the Bangalore South Lok ...

in Bangalore. When the

and

Janata Dal Janata Dal () was an List of political parties in India, Indian political party which was formed through the merger of Lok Dal, Indian National Congress (Jagjivan), and the Jan Morcha on 11 October 1988—the birth anniversary of Jayaprakash Na ...

formed governments in the 1980s and 1990s in the State, he held portfolios higher education, information, Kannada and culture. He is credited with playing the trouble-shooter and mediating during a feud between Hegde and Janata Party leader H. D. Deve Gowda. Alva was reported to have played a role in Gowda becoming the Chief Minister of Karnataka in 1994. In 1980, he co-founded the

Karnataka Kranti Ranga Karnataka Kranti Ranga (Karnataka Revolutionary Front), also known as the Kannada Kranti Ranga was a regional political party in Karnataka, India. KKR was formed by Devaraj Urs in 1979, as a split from the Indian National Congress. It subsequent ...

, intended to campaign against

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 ...

, who Devaraj Urs had fallen out with. Alva would subsequently be a backroom operator, helping engineer Hegde's ascent to the chief ministership of Karnataka in 1983. Between 1988 and 1990, Alva served as secretary-general of

, of its Karnataka State unit. He joined 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 ...

(BJP) just before

1994 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election The 1994 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election took place in two phases on 26 November and 1 December 1994 in all the 224 legislative assembly constituencies in the Indian State of Karnataka. The Janata Dal emerged victorious winning 115 seats ...

. He stayed with the party for a period of 18 months, before quitting to rejoin the Janata Dal. Alva unsuccessfully contested the 1996 and

1998 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1998. Africa * 1998 Burkinabé presidential election * 1998 Central African parliamentary election * 1998 Gabonese presidential election * 1998 Guinean presidential election * 1998 Lesotho general elect ...

to the Lok Sabha from

Bangalore North Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore ( its official name until 1 November 2014), is the capital and largest city of the southern Indian state of Karnataka. As per the 2011 census, the city had a population of 8.4 million, making it the third ...

. He would then join the

Lok Shakti Lok Shakti ( lit. People's Power) was a political party in India. Lok Shakti was one of several parties that were formed when the Janata Dal crumbled in the mid-1990s. LS was formed in February 1997 after Ramakrishna Hegde was expelled from ...

in 1999 and serve as its Karnataka State unit president. His attempt to re-enter the Karnataka Legislative Assembly that year, from Jayamahal, failed.

Personal life

Alva was married to a classical dancer, Nandini Seth. Seth eloped with him when she was 14 and he was 30, in the late-1970s. Hailing from

Allahabad Prayagraj (, ; ISO 15919, ISO: ), formerly and colloquially known as Allahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi, Varanasi (Benar ...

, her family had settled in Bangalore in the mid-1960s. Alva met her while she was a student in the city in the mid-1970s. They have two children together: son Aditya, who is a BJP leader in Bangalore, and daughter, Priyanka. Priyanka is married to actor

Vivek Oberoi Vivek Anand Oberoi (born 3 September 1976) is an Indian actor and businessman. The son of actor Suresh Oberoi, he began acting in 2002 with starring roles in the Hindi crime film ''Company'' and romantic drama '' Saathiya''. His performances ...

. Alva and his wife lived separately three years before Alva's death in 2001. In June 2000, Alva was admitted to the Manipal Hospital in Bangalore to be treated for

meningitis Meningitis is acute or chronic inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, collectively called the meninges. The most common symptoms are fever, intense headache, vomiting and neck stiffness and occasion ...

. Despite recovery, his health worsened after a trip to the US in December. In February 2001, he was again admitted after he contracted

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

and

jaundice Jaundice, also known as icterus, is a yellowish or, less frequently, greenish pigmentation of the skin and sclera due to high bilirubin levels. Jaundice in adults is typically a sign indicating the presence of underlying diseases involving ...

. His health condition deteriorated and died on 12 February, aged 53. His final rites were performed with state honors the following day in the city.

References

1947 births 2001 deaths State cabinet ministers of Karnataka Janata Dal (United) politicians Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Karnataka Lok Shakti politicians Janata Dal politicians Janata Party politicians Karnataka MLAs 1978–1983 Karnataka MLAs 1983–1985 Karnataka MLAs 1985–1989 Karnataka MLAs 1989–1994 {{Karnataka-JDU-politician-stub