Bandaru Dattatreya (born 12 June 1947) is an Indian politician serving as the current

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

of the State of

Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...

since 2021. He was also the 20th

Governor of Himachal Pradesh This is a list of governors of Himachal Pradesh. Sh.Rajendra Arlekar, Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar is the 21st governor (30th if governors with additional charge also counted) of Himachal Pradesh since July 2021. Out of the regular 20 governors ...

and was the Member of Lok Sabha for

Secunderabad Secunderabad, also spelled as Sikandarabad (, ), is a twin cities, twin city of Hyderabad and one of the six zones of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Telangana. It ...

from

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

to 2019. He belongs to the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

(BJP). Born in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

, Dattatreya graduated with a science degree. He joined

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( ; , , ) is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organisation. The RSS is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar (Hindi for "Sangh family" ...

in 1965 and was imprisoned during The Emergency. In

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

, he was elected to the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

from Secunderabad

constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger State (polity), state (a country, administrative region, ...

for the first time. In 1997, he was appointed

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature f ...

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

for the state unit. In

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

, he was re-elected and served as Union

Minister of State Minister of State is a title borne by politicians in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a Minister of State is a Junior Minister of government, who is assigned to assist a specific Cabinet Minister. In o ...

for

Urban Development Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

in the

second Vajpayee ministry Atal Bihari Vajpayee was sworn in as Prime Minister of India The prime minister of India (IAST: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Minist ...

. He was elected for a third consecutive time in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

and again served as a Minister of State in

third Vajpayee ministry Atal Bihari Vajpayee was sworn in as Prime Minister of India for third time on 13 October 1999. He headed his Third Vajpayee Ministry. Here is the list of ministers in his ministry. Cabinet ministers ...

. He lost the Lok Sabha election in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

and

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

. The party appointed him as national vice-president in 2013. In May

, he was re-elected to the Lok Sabha from his former constituency. In November he was made a Minister of State for Labour and Employment in the

Modi ministry Modi ministry may refer to: Union Council of Ministers * First Modi ministry, the 22nd government of India headed by Narendra Modi from 2014 to 2019 * Second Modi ministry, the 23rd government of India headed by Narendra Modi from 2019 onwards ...

and became the lone minister from

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian subcontinent, Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India b ...

Early life

Dattatreya was born on 12 June 1947 to Bandaru Anjaiah and Eswaramma at the city of

, in

Hyderabad State Hyderabad State () was a princely state located in the south-central Deccan region of India with its capital at the city of Hyderabad. It is now divided into the present-day state of Telangana, the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka, and t ...

. He received

B.Sc. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree from

Osmania University Osmania University is a collegiate public state university located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Mir Osman Ali Khan, the 7th Nizam of Hyderabad in 1918 , He released a farman to establish OSMANIA UNIVERSITY on the day of 28 August 1918. It ...

Political career

Dattatreya began his political career and joined

in 1965. He served as a ''pracharak'' (propagator) of the organisation from 1965 to 1968. He also served as state joint secretary of Loka Sangarsha Samiti (

Jayaprakash Narayan Jayaprakash Narayan (; 11 October 1902 – 8 October 1979), popularly referred to as JP or ''Lok Nayak'' (Hindi for "People's leader"), was an Indian independence activist, theorist, socialist and political leader. He is remembered for le ...

-led Total Revolution Movement) and was imprisoned during the Emergency in the 1970s. In 1980, Dattatreya officially joined the

(BJP). He was appointed general secretary of the party's

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

unit. He served in that position until 1989. Dattatreya was elected to the

from the Secunderabad constituency In

. He defeated his nearest rival T. Manemma Anjaiah of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

by a margin of 85,063 votes. He was the only BJP candidate to win from

. In 1997, he became president of the party's Andhra Pradesh unit. P.V. Rajeshwara Rao defeated Dattatreya in the general election held in 1996. However, two years later, he defeated Rao by a margin of 185,910 votes and was re-elected to the Lok Sabha from the Secunderabad constituency. ''

Rediff.com Rediff.com (stylized as ''rediff.com'') is an Indian news, information, entertainment and shopping web portal. It was founded in 1996. It is headquartered in Mumbai, with offices in Bangalore, New Delhi and New York City. , it had more than 300 e ...

'' wrote that the party won four constituencies in the state due to his efforts. He served as Union

(MoS) for

in the

from 1998 to 1999. In

, Dattatreya was elected to the

for the third time. Between 1999 and 2001, he again served as Union MoS for Urban Development in the

. From 2001 to 2003, he served as Union MoS for

Railways Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

. In 2003, he was again given the Urban Development portfolio. Dattatreya lost the

2004 Indian general election General elections were held in India in four phases between 20 April and 10 May 2004. Over 670 million people were eligible to vote, electing 543 members of the 14th Lok Sabha. Seven states also held assembly elections to elect state governm ...

. In the same year, he became the national secretary of the party, a post which he held until 2006. In 2006, he was appointed president of the party's state unit. Three years later, he became a national executive member of the party. In the

2009 Indian general election 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Arabic digit In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...

, he lost his constituency for the second time. He was appointed the national vice-president of the party in 2013. In May

, Dattatreya was re-elected to the Lok Sabha for the fourth time from the Secunderabad constituency. On 9 November, he was made a MoS Labour and Employment. He became the lone minister in the

from the state of

. On 1 September 2017, he resigned from his post. Subsequently, he was made a member of the

standing committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

Finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...

. On 21 March 2019, the BJP replaced Dattatreya with former MLA

G. Kishan Reddy Gangapuram Kishan Reddy (born 15 June 1960) is an Indian politician who is currently serving as Minister of Tourism, Culture and Development of North Eastern Region of India. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He is an MP rep ...

as its candidate from Secunderabad for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. He was appointed the

in the year 2019. On 18 July 2021, Dattatreya was appointed the 18th

Governor of Haryana This is a list of governors of the Indian state of Haryana, which was carved out from Punjab on 1 November 1966. Governors of Haryana See also * Haryana * Governors of India References External links Raj Bhavan, Haryana {{Use dmy dates ...

Personal life

Dattatreya married Vasantha on 17 May 1989. In November 2016, their daughter Vijaya Lakshmi married Jignesh Reddy, the son of chevella parliament constituency contested Janardan Reddy. On 24 May 2018, their son Vaishnav died of

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

at the age of 21. Dattatreya has also served as joint secretary of A. P. Cyclone Committee and general secretary for Voluntary Organisations, India.

Image

According to ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'', "Dattatreya is seen as the most non-controversial and acceptable BJP leader in Telangana". ''

Business Standard ''Business Standard'' is an Indian English-language daily edition newspaper published by Business Standard Private Limited, also available in Hindi. Founded in 1975, the newspaper covers the Indian economy, infrastructure, international busine ...

'' wrote that he is simple, soft-spoken and has a down-to-earth nature.

Legal issues

In January 2016, Dattatreya was charged with abetting the

suicide of Rohith Vemula Rohith Chakravarti Vemula was an Indian PhD scholar at the University of Hyderabad. From July 2015, the university stopped paying Rohith his monthly stipend of (excluding HRA), with friends alleging that he was targeted for raising issues on c ...

, a student at the

University of Hyderabad The University of Hyderabad (IAST: ''Hydarāvād visvavidyālayamu'') is a top ranking public central research university located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Founded in 1974, this mostly residential campus has more than 5,000 students a ...

. Following allegations that he was instrumental in getting Vemula along with four other students suspended from the university's hostel, he was booked under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The previous August, he wrote a letter to

Smriti Irani Smriti Zubin Irani (''née'' Malhotra; born 23 March 1976) is an Indian politician and a former television actress and producer. She is a Minister in Union Cabinet of India since May 2019 currently administrating the Ministries of Women and C ...

, the

minister of Human Resource Development The Minister of Education, formerly the Minister of Human Resources Development (1985-2020), is the head of the Ministry of Education and one of the cabinet ministers of the Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often ab ...

claiming the university had turned into a "den of casteist, extremist and anti-national politics". Dattatreya denied any wrongdoing and claimed that he had received the letter from

Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) () is a right-wing all India student organisation affiliated to the Hindu nationalist organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). History The ABVP, founded in 1948 with the initiative of the RSS ...

and just forwarded it to Irani with his official letterhead. Other students of the university claimed that his letter was a "part of the larger discrimination of

Dalit Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the Caste system in India, castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold Varna (Hinduism), varna syste ...

students".

References

External links

Parliament of India Biography
, - , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Dattatreya, Bandaru India MPs 1991–1996 India MPs 1998–1999 India MPs 1999–2004 India MPs 2014–2019 1947 births Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Telangana Labour ministers of India Living people Lok Sabha members from Andhra Pradesh Lok Sabha members from Telangana Narendra Modi ministry People from Telangana Politicians from Secunderabad Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharaks Telangana politicians Telugu politicians Union Ministers from Telangana Osmania University alumni Governors of Himachal Pradesh