Personal Info | Assets & Liabilities | Positions Held | Performance | Local Issues | MPLAD Funds | Controversy Count
Ananth Kumar is a five-time Lok Sabha MP who represents the Bangalore South constituency. The constituency comprises of Govindraj Nagar, Vijay Nagar, Chickpet, Padmanabha Nagar, Bommanahalli, Basavanagudi, BTM Layout and Jayanagar assembly constituencies.
In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, Kumar defeated Krishna Byregowda (INC), a sitting MLA for Byatarayanapura, by a margin of over 37,000 votes.
In the past, when the NDA regime was in power, Kumar was a Union Cabinet Minister serving multiple ministries including Civil Aviation, Urban Development, Tourism and Culture etc.
It has been widely reported that Anant Kumar would once again be the BJP candidate from Bangalore South LS constituency. However, some speculators expect him to move away and contest from Hubli.
Name: Ananth Kumar
Age: 54 years
Date of Birth: July 22, 1959
Address & Contact: No 84, Shashwati, Ranoji Rao Road, Basavanagudi, Bangalore – 560004, Tel: 080 26568484
Constituency: Bangalore South
Party: Bharatiya Janata Party
Term: 2009 – till date
Website: http://ananth.org/
Educational Qualifications: B.A., LL.B. Educated at K.S. Arts College, & J.S.S. Law College, Karnataka University, Hubli, Karnataka
Assets & Liabilities (as of 2009)
|
Movable Assets |
Immovable Assets |
Total Assets |
Liabilities |
Net Assets |
|
57,85,078 |
64,21,288 |
122,06,366 |
Nil |
122,06,366 |
All Figures in INR. Source: Myneta
Over the past three decades that Ananth Kumar has been in public life, he has held numerous positions in the BJP – at the state and the central level, as an elected official on five occasions as an MP, Union Cabinet Minister on several occasions and a member of various central committees.
Kumar began his public life as an ABVP Secretary – Karnataka, before being elevated to the National Secretary of the same organisation. His next appointment was as General Secretary, BJP Karnataka Chapter, in the late 80s, when the BJP was still in its infancy, before being appointed as National Secretary, BJP in the mid 90s.
He was first elected to the 11th Lok Sabha in 1996 where he was part of two Central Committees. Since then, he has been consistently elected to the Lok Sabha. It was in the short-lived 12th Lok Sabha when he first became a Cabinet Minister – Ministry of Civil Aviation, with Additional Charge, Ministry of Tourism.
He was re-elected to the 13th Lok Sabha and during his tenure was Union Cabinet Minister for Culture, Youth Affairs and Sports, Tourism & Culture, and Urban Development & Poverty Alleviation with additional charge of Rural Development (the tenure for which he was a minister for each of these ran separately).
During the 14th Lok Sabha, after the UPA government came to power, the BJP was the primary Opposition party, Ananth Kumar has been the Chairman of influential committees including Coal & Steel and Finance, as well as a Member of several committees including the Joint Committee on Office of Profit, Business Advisory Committee and General Purposes Committee.
For the 15th Lok Sabha (2009–2014), he was Chairman of Committee on External Affairs, and Chemicals and Fertilizers and a member of Committee of Privileges, and Rules Committee. He is often seen as the voice of BJP Karnataka at the national level raising key points and being part of different debates.
11th Lok Sabha
- Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Industry
- Member, Standing Committee, Ministry of Railways
12th Lok Sabha
- Union Cabinet Minister, Civil Aviation
- Additional Charge, Ministry of Tourism
13th Lok Sabha
- Union Cabinet Minister, Culture, Youth Affairs and Sports
- Union Cabinet Minister, Tourism & Culture
- Union Cabinet Minister, Urban Development & Poverty Alleviation with additional charge of Rural Development
14th Lok Sabha
- Re-elected to 14th Lok Sabha (4th term)
- Chairman, Committee on Coal & Steel
- Member, General Purposes Committee
- National General Secretary, BJP
- Member, Joint Committee on Office of Profil
- Chairman, Committee on Finance
- Member, Business Advisory Committee
15th Lok Sabha
- Re-elected to the 15th Lok Sabha (5th term)
- Chairman, Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers
- Member, Committee of Privileges
- Member, Rules Committee
- Chairman, Committee on External Affairs
Performance as an MP during the 15th Lok Sabha
Ananth Kumar is generally seen as the voice of the Karnataka BJP in Delhi. He participates in debates and discussions and his position at the central BJP leadership ensures visibility. Kumar has an above average attendance record of 86% which is better than the national and state average. In 13 of the 15 Lok Sabha sessions, he has an attendance record of 80% and above. He has also been part of 42 debates which is above the state average, but below the national average. Quite a few of these debates have been related to Karnataka. He has also participated in three government bill discussions. With respect to the number of questions asked, he fares below the state and national average. The nature of the questions asked with reference to their relevance to his constituency will be analysed in a separate article.
MP and local issues
With respect to his constituency, Ananth Kumar seems to have taken a very interesting stance with regard to the Bangalore Metro. In a rare public event organized by Ananth Kumar and his team in 2013, he invited the MD of BCL, Sivasailam to have a citizens meet with regard to the Bangalore Metro. When a lot of citizens complained to Sivasailam about losing their properties to BCL, and when Sivasailam’s standard response was that they should go to court, Ananth Kumar stepped in to say that the Metro does not belong to Sivasailam, and that people should come to him and his team for addressing such problems. However, it is not clear what has happened with regard to this issue since then.
He has also leapt into the whole Kannada movie industry dubbing debate by casting his lot with the ‘anti dubbing’ lobby. Kumar says that at present Kannada movies do good business in 10-12 districts and if dubbing is allowed, that will kill the film industry. He says that he has written to the Union Minister for Information and IT in this regard.
Inspite of being an MP, Kumar has had Chief Ministerial aspirations and that has led him to clash with Yediyurappa (who then went on to become CM) on several occasions.
|
MPs |
Attendance |
No of Debates |
No of questions asked |
Private Member’s Bill |
|
Ananth Kumar |
85.00% |
42 |
222 |
0 |
|
National Average |
76% |
36.8 |
292 |
0.8 |
|
State (Karnataka) Average |
68% |
20.6 |
339 |
0.2 |
MPLAD funds utilisation
A quick analysis of the MPLAD data for Ananth Kumar reveals a bulk spending, Rs. 6.2 crore on ‘Civic Amenities’ – namely community and cultural halls. The next big expenditure head is Water where the MP has provided funds for digging bore wells and providing submersible pumps across his constituency. Kumar has also spent over Rs 4 crore on augmenting government school infrastructure through class room construction.
The MP has also contributed towards the purchase of hospital equipment and health check-up camps to the tune of Rs 1.8 crore, while almost Rs 49 lakh have been spent on providing for toilets (including certain ‘hi-tech’ toilets at a few locations). There are entries for a number of projects which do not have a proper description and which have therefore been put under the ‘others’ category.
For full list of works and interesting observations, click here.
Controversy count
HUDCO scam: When Ananth Kumar was the Urban Development Minister in the NDA regime, a HUDCO loan to the tune of Rs. 14,500 crores was given, where it was alleged that three part-time Directors of HUDCO sanctioned loans amounting to Rs. 5,000 crores to 50 corporate houses in a day in the absence of a single permanent Director. However, Kumar’s involvement in the ‘scam’ has never been proved, with the CVC and CBI closing the probe for the want of evidence.
Nira Radia controversy: The Nira Radia tapes once again brought forth Ananth Kumar’s name to the fore. It has been alleged that when he was the Civil Aviation, Kumar was approached by Nira Radia to ‘help’ him understand the dealings of the Civil Aviation sector better, since he was a new Minister and she had some experience in this regard. It has been alleged that she facilitated several aviation deals from which she benefitted. But these have not reached any court so far, no cases lodged too.
Ananth Kumar v/s Yeddyurappa: Ananth Kumar was seen to be a staunch opponent to the erstwhile Karnataka CM, B.S. Yediyurappa. This alleged enimity could be possibly attributed to Kumar’s desire to be the Chief Minister which ultimately went to Yediyurappa. However, more recently, after Yediyurappa’s return to the BJP, the two seem to have patched up and it has been reported that the two have will be working together for the party in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Aam Aadmi Party list of corrupt politicians: He has also been targeted by the Aam Aadmi Party in a list of 25 most corrupt politicians which was released by them in late January 2014. Kumar has slapped a defamation notice against AAP for his name appearing on the list.
With the imminent announcement of Nandan Nilekani as the potential candidate for INC from Bangalore South, it remains to be seen whether Kumar and the BJP can retain their Bangalore South bastion.
MPLAD funds expenditure (2009 – 2014)
| Detail | Cost (in Lakhs) | No of Projects |
| Civic Amenities | 621.4 | 46 |
| Education | 408.6 | 30 |
| Health | 180 | 21 |
| Roads | 44.5 | 3 |
| Sanitation | 48.98 | 5 |
| Others | 22.5 | 8 |
| Water | 450.7 | 111 |
| Total | 1776.68 | 224 |
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Seems better compared to others in terms of attendance etc. on paper. But spends most of the time outside the state behind Advani or Shiv Raj Singh Chauhan now – totally doomed in Chamachagiri (Sycophancy) , Not accessible to people or doesn’t visit his constituencies in public forum once in six months also. Hasn’t done much being five time MP; no achievement as a minister also except for few corruption controversies.
Don’t know if we need to believe this declared wealth. If it it is true, then it is a “pass” from honesty perspective. But one should have his own doubts by looking at how he flies and moves around. Also not sure about two houses in prime area ?? Have heard about Engineering College through relatives ?? These are only rumours. If someone can authenticate with facts, that would be nice. AAP also listed him as one of the corrupts who shouldn’t reach Lok Sabha.
I think Bangaloreans need a change. We cannot be electing same person without much achievements in the name of Modi. I hope citizens are intelligent to vote out such people.
I agree that we need new people in that constituency, but see an MP has very few powers. India now is in dire need of good leadership and a stable government. We need a national party with minimum or no coalition. Only then we can expect some growth. And Modi has proved very well. This is national elections, not assembly elections. Lets not expect roads, electricity or any infrastructure from MP’s; its the responsibility of MLA’s. Anyway with the growth of AAP, it will be good contest, but lets see the big picture and also nations point of view. We need a party which provides good economic, foreign policies. Lets vote for national elections looking at the parties point of view as far as the person is non corrupt at this point.
I still believe it is always correct and right thing to vote based on better candidate rather than party. Few reasons : Good people are in all parties and we need good people in parliament or assembly irrespective of party affiliations. When we elect good candidate, parties will be forced to put up good candidate. Otherwise, they manipulate things and take things for granted. In democracy, we also need strong opposition anyway. So there be good people in the opposition too.
Why don’t we tell political parties to put up better choice in this case BJP ?? Why as voters we need to forget about the candidate and vote for party or someone who is going to be PM ?? So I beg to differ on this and urge you also to think about little more.
Honestly, I didn’t like that Kejriwal contested against Sheila Dixit as I wanted to see both of them in Delhi assembly. She is also good and deserve to be part of the opposition bench at least. Even then, I like AAP and their approach. I know that it is very tough for them to expand as all sorts of people want to ride the winning horse. I liked the call from Kejriwal that all good people should come and join together for the sake of country. Even Ramakrishna Hegde mooted such an idea long ago. But it is very difficult to materailize.
I know that MPs don’t get involved directly in terms of roads, electricity etc. But they get lot of money which can be spent on these things through local governments. Also most of the time, they control MLA seat distribution too. So they cannot absolve of their responsibilities.
Honestly, I think AnantKumar could have done a lot on easing Bangalore traffic situation too even though may not be his direct responsibility. BJP government was there in state for 5 years. His protege Ashok was Home and Transport minister.
Let me tell you – no one is bothered about country or about you and me. If that was true, we wouldn’t be like this.
I wish we have better representative who has time and concern for the constituency. As many other expressed our current representative seems to have lost the touch of the ground realities and has engrossed into the sycophancy. It looks like it is more important to be baggage to other senior leaders than work for the constituency.
Hoping to see a better concerned representative of the consitituency, hoping to see better wisdom prevails in Bangalore south this time
Fit for organisational work in BJP, not MP. His casteist politics brought an end to BJP in Karnataka by ousting BSY with Congi help
Both of them speak very well i do this and that, but i do not think so they are not enough intelligent to bring Bangalore back to better city in most of the respects. A PERSON MUST BE NEUTRAL AND WHO CAN TALK ALL THE STAKE HOLDERS ( INCLUDING NICE) WITHOUT BIAS CAN ACHIEVE BETTER BANGALORE IN THE INTEREST OF PUBLIC/PEOPLE. THEY PERFORM ALL PADAYATRA ETC JUST TIME PASSING TO GAIN VOTE PURPOSE ONLY, DURING ELECTION TIME. BOTTOM LINE NEITHER ANAND NOR NANDAN HAVE GREAT VISIONARY LEADER AS FAR AS TO SOLVE PEOPLE PROBLEMS.