Venkatesh Atmaram Desai (born 5 July 1948/49) is an Indian politician and businessperson from

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

. He is a former member of the

Goa Legislative Assembly The Goa Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the state of Goa in India. The Assembly meets at the Goa State Legislative Assembly Complex in Porvorim, Bardez. The Eighth Goa Legislative Assembly consists of 40 members. The assem ...

, representing the

Valpoi Assembly constituency Valpoi Assembly constituency is one of 40 Goa Legislative Assembly constituencies of the state of Goa in southern India, and one of 20 constituencies under North Goa Lok Sabha constituency. Members of Legislative Assembly Election result ...

from 1999 to 2002. He also served as a council minister in the Sardinha ministry.

Early and personal life

Venkatesh Atmaram Desai was born in Advoi-

Sattari Sattari (Konkani: ''Sot'tori''; IPA: ) is a ''taluka'' of North Goa district in the state of Goa, India. There are 77 villages and 2 towns in Sattari Taluka. The headquarters of Sattari taluka is Valpoi municipal council. It lies in the north ...

, Goa. He is married to Suvarna Desai. He completed his 7th grade from Marathi Mulanchi Shala,

Khanapur Khanapur known as Khanapura is a panchayat town in Belagavi district, Karnataka, India. It is about 26 km from Belagavi, the administrative capital of the district. The Khanapur Municipal Council governs the town. Khanapur is the headquar ...

in 1960. Desai later completed his diploma in

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

. He is also a businessperson and farmer by profession. He currently resides at Sattari, Goa.

Political career

Prior contesting the Goa Legislative elections in 1999, Desai served as a

sarpanch A sarpanch, gram pradhan, mukhiya, or president is a decision-maker, elected by the village-level constitutional body of local self-government called the gram sabha (village government) in India. The sarpanch, together with other elected panchay ...

of the Pissurlem '' panchayat'' from 1981 to 1986. He was also the sarpanch of Bhironda ''panchayat'' in 1987 and later elected as a deputy sarpanch from the same ''panchayat''.

Controversy

On 11 January 2011, prior to the

2012 Goa Legislative Assembly election The Goa legislative assembly election was held on 3 March 2012, to select the 40 members of the Sixth Goa Legislative Assembly, as the term of 5th Goa Legislative Assembly ended in March 2012. The result was announced on 6 March. The Bharatiya ...

, fellow MLA,

Vishwajit Rane Vishwajit Pratapsingh Rane (born 23 March 1971) is an Indian politician and a cabinet minister in the Government of Goa. The son of former Chief Minister of Goa Pratapsingh Rane, he previously served as the Minister of Health, Agriculture and ...

lodged a complaint against Desai, for distribution of fake job letters amongst the youth in the constituency. However Desai denied any involvement of the same when contacted by the

Election Commission of India The Election Commission of India (ECI) is a constitutional body established by Constitution of India, the Constitution of the Republic of India empowered to conduct free and fair elections in the Republic of India. It is headed by a Chief Ele ...

Positions held

*Councillor of Valpoi Municipal Council *Treasurer of ''Mahadei Bachao Andolan'' *Chairman of Kadamba Transport Corporation Ltd

References

Living people 1940s births People from North Goa district Goa MLAs 1999–2002 {{authority control