Venkaiah Naidu is an Indian politician who served as the 13th Vice President of India from 2017 to 2022. He also served as the minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Urban Development, Information and Broadcasting in the Modi Cabinet. Naidu has also served as the national president of Bhartiya Janta Party from 2002 to 2004. Earlier, he was the Union Cabinet Minister for Rural Development in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. In 2024, the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Vibhushan.

He was Swayamsevak in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and joined ABVP during his college days. He was elected as the president of the students’ union of colleges affiliated with Andhra University. He came into the spotlight for his role in the Jai Andhra Movement of 1972.

In 1974, he became the convener of Jayprakash Narayan Chhatra Sangharsh Samiti of Andhra Pradesh.

His oratory skills and political activism helped him in his political career, and he was elected as an MLA to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly twice from the Udaygiri constituency in Nellore district in 1978 and 1983.

In 1998, he was selected as a member of the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka. He was re-elected twice, in 2004 and 2010 from Karnataka. He served as a party spokesperson from 1996 to 2000.

After the NDA victory in the 1999 general elections, he became the Union Cabinet Minister for Rural Development in the government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

In 2003, he became the National President of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

After the BJP came to power in the 2014 general elections, he was sworn in as the Minister for Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs on 26th May 2014.

In 2016, he was nominated by the BJP for the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan and was elected. On July 5th , 2016, he concurrently served as Minister of Information and Broadcasting. A year later, he resigned from both offices to contest the 2017 vice presidential election, He won the election to become the 13th Vice President of India.