Venkataiah Srinivasa Prasad (6 August 1947 – 29 April 2024) 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 ...

, who was recognised as an important

Dalit Dalit ( from meaning "broken/scattered") is a term used for untouchables and outcasts, who represented the lowest stratum of the castes in the Indian subcontinent. They are also called Harijans. Dalits were excluded from the fourfold var ...

leader in the old Mysore region. He served as a union minister from 1999 to 2004 as part of the

Third Vajpayee ministry Atal Bihari Vajpayee was sworn in as Prime Minister of India for third time on 13 October 1999. He headed his Third Vajpayee Ministry. Here is the list of ministers in his ministry. Reshuffles In a reshuffle on 29 September 2000, Venkaiah Na ...

, and later as Minister of Revenue 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 ...

from 2013 to 2016. Prasad was elected to 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 ...

from

Chamarajanagar Chamarajanagara is a city and headquarter of eponymous Chamarajanagar district in the Karnataka state of India. It is named after Chamaraja Wodeyar IX, the erstwhile Raja of Mysore, Chamarajanagara was previously known as 'Arikottara'. Hist ...

six times starting 1980. His last win came from the same constituency in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, before he announced his retirement from electoral politics in 2021.

Early life

Prasad was born on 6 August 1947 into a

family of M. Venkataiah and D. V. Puttamma in Ashokapuram,

Mysore Mysore ( ), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of Mysore district and Mysore division. As the traditional seat of the Wadiyar dynasty, the city functioned as the capital of the ...

. Prasad was a volunteer of

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS,, ) is an Indian right-wing politics, right-wing, Hindutva, Hindu nationalist volunteer paramilitary organisation. It is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar ( ...

from childhood until 1972 and was active in the

Jan Sangh The Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh ( BJS or JS, short name: Jan Sangh) was a Hindutva political party active in India. It was established on 21 October 1951 in Delhi by three founding members: Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Balraj Madhok and Deendayal ...

and

Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) is a student organization in India, registered as a Non-governmental organization (NGO) in 1949. It's a significant student union with over 5 million members, making it one of the largest student or ...

. Prasad was raised in Mysore where he also completed his education. He obtained a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree from Sarada Vilas College and a master's degree in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

from the

University of Mysore The University of Mysore is a public state university in Mysore, Karnataka, India. The university was founded during the reign of Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV and the premiership of Sir M. Visvesvaraya. The university is recognised by t ...

Career

Prasad entered electoral politics in 1974, in the by-election to Krishnaraja segment as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

, 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 ...

. He joined 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 ...

in 1976 and 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 ...

(INC) in 1979. He rejoined the INC before quitting it again in 1996, after being denied a ticket to contest the 1996 general election to the Lok Sabha. He contested the 1999 election and won with a

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, ...

(JD(U)) ticket, before joining the

Samata Party The Samata Party (SAP) is a political party in India, initially formed in 1994 by George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar, is now being led by Uday Mandal as its National President. Samata Party once launched Nitish Kumar as the Chief Minister of ...

, headed by

George Fernandes George Mathew Fernandes (3 June 1930 – 29 January 2019) was an Indian politician, trade unionist, statesman, and journalist, who served as the Minister of Defence (India), Defence Minister of India from 1998 until 2004. A veteran socialist, h ...

. Later, the Samata Party merged with the JD(U). In the

Atal Bihari Vajpayee Atal Bihari Vajpayee (25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was an Indian poet, writer and statesman who served as the prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months from 1998 ...

-led union government formed by the

National Democratic Alliance The National Democratic Alliance (NDA; ISO 15919, ISO: ''Rāṣṭrīya Lokatāntrik Gaṭhabandhan'') is an Indian big tent Political group, multi-party political alliance, led by the country's biggest political party, the Bharatiya Janata Pa ...

that his party was a part of, Prasad served as the Minister of State for Food and Consumer Affairs, between 1999 and 2004. In 2003, Prasad's name propped in the ''

Tehelka ''Tehelka'' () is an Indian news magazine known for its investigative journalism and sting operations. According to the British newspaper ''The Independent'', the ''Tehelka'' was founded by Tarun Tejpal, Aniruddha Bahal and another colleague ...

'' tapes controversy; tapes showed another Samata Party leader Jaya Jaitley allegedly telling an arms dealer to deposit the money with Prasad who was then in

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

. Prasad denied his involvement and stated that he was in

during that time and that he "had filed a suit and the news portal later made it clear that they were mistaken." In 2004, Prasad then returned to Karnataka State politics. He first had a short stint with

Janata Dal (Secular) {{Infobox Indian Political Party , party_name = Janata Dal (Secular) , party_logo = , colorcode = {{party color, Janata Dal (Secular) , abbreviation = JD(S) , president = H. D. Deve Gowda , founder ...

(JD(S)), joining the party, after quitting his position as union minister and as member of Samata Party, in March. He ruled out contesting the

general election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

to the Lok Sabha that year and stated that his aim was to oust the "corrupt" INC government in Karnataka and help JD(S) form the next government in the State. Two years later, Prasad re-joined the INC. He was elected

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 ...

of Karnataka from

Nanjangud Nanjangud, officially known as Nanjanagudu, is a town in the Mysuru district of the Indian state of Karnataka. Nanjangud lies on the banks of the river Kapila (also called Kabini), 23 km from the city of Mysore. Nanjangud is famous for the ...

in 2013. Between 2013 and 2016, he served as Minister for Revenue & Muzrai in the

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 ...

-led government. He then changed his party again and officially 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), a party he had quit in 2005, in January 2017. He justified his re-entry to the BJP by stating that it was "no more a

Hindutva Hindutva (; ) is a Far-right politics, far-right political ideology encompassing the cultural justification of Hindu nationalism and the belief in establishing Hindu hegemony within India. The political ideology was formulated by Vinayak Da ...

outfit" and that their "outlook" had changed". This necessitated a by-poll in Nanjangud which he lost to the INC candidate. He was then appointed the vice-president of the State unit of the BJP. Prasad contested Chamarajanagar in nine elections to the Lok Sabha and won on six occasions. In the Karnataka legislative assembly elections, he won from Nanjangud twice. He contested a total of fourteen elections and won eight.

Personal life and death

Prasad was married to Bhagyalakshmi and had three daughters with her: Prathima, Poornima and Poonam. Prasad had converted to

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

. Citing poor health, Prasad announced his retirement from politics again in March 2024, after 50 years of active politics. However, he extended support to the INC and a few of his relatives joined the party in April, ahead of the

. In the same month, he was admitted to a hospital in

, and was being treated for respiratory and other ailments. He died on 29 April at the age of 76. The last rites were performed with full state honours the following day, and as per Buddhist rituals in Mysore. The Chief Minister of Karnataka and Prasad's former colleague,

, condoled his death and stated: "The departure of the leader who lived the struggle against injustice and inequality is a big setback for the political struggle for social justice in the state." 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 ...

stated: "He was a champion of social justice, having devoted his life to the welfare of the poor, downtrodden and marginalised. He was very popular for his various works of community service." As a mark of respect, the government of Karnataka declared a one-day holiday in the districts of

and

References

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External links

Profile
at India.gov.in {{DEFAULTSORT:Prasad, Srinivasa 1947 births 2024 deaths Samata Party politicians Indian National Congress politicians from Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Karnataka Janata Dal (Secular) politicians India MPs 1980–1984 India MPs 1984–1989 India MPs 1989–1991 India MPs 1991–1996 India MPs 1999–2004 Lok Sabha members from Karnataka Indian Buddhists 20th-century Buddhists 21st-century Buddhists India MPs 2019–2024 Janata Party politicians Janata Dal (United) politicians Karnataka MLAs 1999–2004 Karnataka MLAs 2013–2018 People from Mysore district