Introduction
H. N. Ananth Kumar (born 22 July 1959) is an Indian politician belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party. Since 1996 he has represented Bangalore South constituency in the Lok Sabha. Ananth Kumar has served as Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers since May 2014 and as Minister of Parliamentary Affairs since July 2016 in the Narendra Modi government.
Politics
Having been influenced by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, he was a member of its student wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. During the Emergency, he was imprisoned along with thousands of other student activists by the Indira Gandhi government. He was elected as the State Secretary of the ABVP and later, became its National Secretary in 1985. He later joined BJP and was nominated as the State President of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha. He was then made National Secretary of the party in 1996.
He was elected from Bangalore South Lok Sabha constituency to the 11th Lok Sabha in 1996. In 1998 he was re elected and was inducted into the Union Cabinet headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the Minister for Civil Aviation. In 1999, he was re-elected to a 3rd Consecutive term and became a cabinet minister in the National Democratic Alliance government. He handled various ministries like Tourism, Sports & Youth Affairs, Culture, Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation.
He became the President of the Karnataka state unit of BJP in 2003 and led the state unit which became the single largest party in the Legislative Assembly and won the highest number of Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka in 2004. In 2004, he was appointed as the National General Secretary of the BJP and has held that post ever since.
On 26 May 2014, Kumar was appointed Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers in newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet.
Performance in the Lok Sabha, 2009 - 2014 (Ref: http://election.intoday.in/mpreport/Karnataka/Bangalore_South.html)
| MP performance Parameters (2009-2014) | Ananth Kumar |
| Attendance in parliament | 86.40% |
| Questions raised | 217 |
| Funds available | 19 |
| Funds used | 11.91 |
| Number of cases | NIL |
| Committee membership | 4 |
| Committee attendance | 34.80% |
| Score on committee attendance | 2 |
| Lok Sabha performance score | 7.5 |
| Voter satisfaction score | 6.5 |
6th time MP from Bengaluru South: 20 years in continuous service of the constituency
| Year | winner | Party | Losing candidate | Party |
| 2014 | Ananth Kumar | BJP | Nandan Nilekani | INC |
| 2009 | Ananth Kumar | BJP | K Byre Gowda | INC |
| 2004 | Ananth Kumar | BJP | Krishnappa M | INC |
| 1999 | Ananth Kumar | BJP | B K Hariprasad | INC |
| 1998 | Ananth Kumar | BJP | D P Sharma | INC |
| 1996 | Ananth Kumar | BJP | Varalakshmi Gundu Rao | INC |
There were mid term elections in 1998 and 1999, leading to 5 terms totalling to 20 years instead of 25 years.. From these terms from 1996 to 2016, Sri Ananth Kumar has completed a glorious two decades without a break in the prestigious constituency of Bengaluru South. And incidentally, BJP as a party has held to this constituency for a silver jubilee years, (25 years) from 1991 to 2016..
Personal life
Ananth Kumar was born on 22 July 1959 in Bangalore, Karnataka to H N Narayan Sastry and Girija. He graduated in faculty of Arts (B.A) from K S Arts College, Hubli affiliated to the Karnatak University and later, completed his bachelors in law (L.L.B) from J.S.S. Law College affiliated to the Mysore University. He married Tejaswini and the couple have 2 daughters – Aishwarya and Vijeta.