Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu (born 1 July 1949) is an Indian politician who served as the 13th Vice President of India from August 2017 to August 2022. Before that he was national president of the Bharatiya Janata Party and a Union minister under both Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi. He is known for his oratory, full of rhymes and one-line quips, and for championing Indian languages. He received the Padma Vibhushan in 2024.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu |
| Born | 1 July 1949, Chavatapalem, Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh, India |
| Age | 77 |
| Office | 13th Vice President of India (2017–2022) |
| Party | Bharatiya Janata Party (before becoming Vice President) |
| Earlier offices | BJP president (2002–2004); Union Minister for Rural Development, Urban Development, Parliamentary Affairs, Information and Broadcasting |
| Education | V. R. College, Nellore (B.A.); Andhra University (LL.B.) |
| Spouse | Usha Naidu (m. 1971) |
| Children | 2 (Harshavardhan and Deepa) |
Early Life
Naidu was born into a farming family in a village in Nellore district. His mother died when he was a baby, and he was raised by his grandparents. He joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as a boy, led student unions at college and at Andhra University, and took part in the Jai Andhra movement of 1972. He was jailed during the Emergency.
Political Career
He was elected to the Andhra Pradesh assembly from Udayagiri in 1978 and 1983, at a time when the BJP and its predecessor had very little presence in the state, and became the party’s state president.
He moved to Delhi as a party general secretary and spokesman and entered the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka in 1998. As Minister for Rural Development in Vajpayee’s government he oversaw the launch of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana rural roads programme. He was BJP president from 2002 to 2004. In Modi’s first government he was Minister for Urban Development, Housing, Parliamentary Affairs and later Information and Broadcasting, handling the Smart Cities Mission and urban housing schemes.
The BJP-led alliance nominated him in July 2017, and he defeated Gopalkrishna Gandhi. As Chairman of the Rajya Sabha he presided over the passage of the laws on Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 and the farm bills in 2020, and he pressed members to speak in their mother tongues, arranging interpretation in all scheduled languages. He was succeeded by Jagdeep Dhankhar.
Personal Life
Naidu married Usha in 1971. His daughter, Deepa Venkat, runs the Swarna Bharat Trust, which he founded in Nellore for rural development and skills training. He continues to travel and speak on education, farming and language.
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was M. Venkaiah Naidu born?
M. Venkaiah Naidu was born on 1 July 1949 in Chavatapalem, Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh, India and is 77 years old.
Featured image: M. Venkaiah Naidu (right) with Bandaru Dattatreya at the Geospatial World Forum, Hyderabad, January 2017. Photo by Geospatial World, licensed under CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
