R. Roshan Baig is a former seven-time 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 ...

and Minister from South Indian 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 has also been vice-chairman of the Al-Ameen Educational Society. A seven-time MLA, from 1984 to 1994 he was the member of the

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 ...

for the first two terms as the MLA and from 1994 to 2019 he was the member 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 ...

for 5 of his MLA terms. Baig was suspended from the

in 2019 after he insulted top Congress leaders for the party's poor performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Roshan Baig had held former Karnataka Chief Minister

Siddaramaiah Siddaramaiah (born 3 August 1947), also referred to by his nickname Siddu, is an Indian politician who is serving as the 22nd List of chief ministers of Karnataka, chief minister of Karnataka from 20 May 2023. He also held that position previo ...

's "arrogance" and Dinesh Gundu Rao's "immaturity" responsible for the "flop show". He was also blamed for praising Prime 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 ...

's initiatives for inclusive development. He was elected to the

for a record seven-times from Shivajinagar Assembly Constituency and Shivajinagar was touted as his bastion for over 4 decades.

Early life

Baig was born premature and had health problems as a child. He had poor attendance and failed his 8th standard exam. Ultimately, he passed high school and was admitted to RC College in Bangalore, where he contested his first election, for the post of General Secretary against

Nagathihalli Chandrashekhar Nagathihalli Chandrashekhar is an Indian director, actor, screenwriter and a lyricist who predominantly works in Kannada film industry, Kannada Cinema. He made his film debut as a screenplay writer in ''Kadina Benki'' (1986) which won the Natio ...

. After earning a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in commerce, he studied for his

L.L.B A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

. at a government law college.

Political career

Abdul Samad Siddiqui got him into politics in Janta party. He won the 1985 state elections for the 8th Assembly with the Janata Party. After the division of that party, he moved to the

party. As a prominent face in

Bangalore Central Bangalore Central is one of the 28 Lok Sabha constituencies in Karnataka state in southern India. This constituency was created in 2008 as part of delimitation. It was carved out of the Bangalore North and South Lok Sabha constituencies during ...

and

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's touted as the face of Muslim community in

. He was an MLA from Shivajinagar which is a Muslim majority constituency with a substantial Hindu population. Baig claims 99% attendance to the assembly.

Posts held

*Minister of State for Home (Independent Charge) *Minister for Tourism and Haj *Minister for Medium & Small Scale Industries *Minister for Infrastructure *Minister for Information, Public Relations and Haj *Minister For Urban Development, City Corporations, Urban Land Transport KUWSDB & KUIDFC, Haj Information & Wakf *Member of the 8th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th

Controversies

In 2012 ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

'' published news about forgery case against him, in a property deal. He was later cleared of his charges. In 2004, Baig had to resign as minister following his brother Rehan’s alleged involvement in the multi-crore fake stamp paper scandal. The complaint against Baig is that in 2006 he bought a 1.1-acre plot in Begur Hobli, on the outskirts of Bangalore, from Keonics for a paltry sum on the pretext that he wanted to start a small-scale industry. He, however entered into a joint development agreement with Prestige Group for the construction of a commercial complex.

Suspension from Indian National Congress

The Congress Party suspended Roshan Baig on 18 June 2019, on account of what it termed "anti-party activities" after he insulted top Congress leaders for the party's poor performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Roshan Baig had held former Karnataka Chief Minister

's "arrogance" and Dinesh Gundu Rao's "immaturity" responsible for the "flop show".

Dinesh Gundu Rao Dinesh Gundu Rao (born 9 October 1969) is an Indian politician serving as the minister of health and family welfare since May 2023 in the government of Karnataka. He has previously held food and civil supplies, and consumer affairs portfolios, b ...

who was embroiled in a bitter feud with Baig had also drawn the party's attention to Baig's entanglement in the events surrounding

I Monetary Advisory I Monetary Advisory (IMA) was an Indian investment company, with headquarters in Bangalore. Its collapse was one in a long line of similar collapses over the preceding few years, of companies purporting to be Islamic banking companies, with invest ...

Honors

Recently he has been honored with the life membership of the International Film And Television Club of

Asian Academy of Film & Television Noida Film City is a film city consisting a complex of studios and structures for filming located in Sector 16-A of Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. It houses the Asian Academy of Film, Television and Marwah Films and Video Studios along with prom ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baig, R. Roshan Karnataka MLAs 2008–2013 20th-century Indian Muslims 21st-century Indian Muslims Living people Indian National Congress politicians from Karnataka 1953 births Politicians from Bengaluru