Jalahalli Ramaiah Ashoka (born 1 July 1957) is an Indian politician serving as the Minister of Revenue of Karnataka from 20 August 2019. He is also the Vice-Chairman for the Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority and the district in-charge minister for Bangalore rural. He has previously served as the 6th

Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka The Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka is a member of the Cabinet in the Government of Karnataka. Not technically a constitutional office, it seldom carries any specific powers. A deputy Chief minister usually also holds a key cabinet portfolio ...

. He has previously served as the Deputy Leader of Opposition in Karnataka Legislative Assembly (2014 -2018), Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Transport under the BJP government. He has also served as the

Minister of Health and Family Welfare The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is an Indian government ministry charged with health policy in India. It is also responsible for all government programs relating to family planning in India. The Minister of Health and Family Welfare h ...

under the coalition government of BJP and JDS. He is a six-time MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly) for the

Padmanabhanagar Padmanabhanagar is a posh residential locality in South Bangalore, India, covering an area of 1.68 km2 It's one of the zones of BBMP. Padmanabhanagar has a very famous park called Lakshmikanta Park. This park houses Lakshmi Kantha temple. ...

(formerly

Uttarahalli Uttarahalli is an area of Bangalore in the Indian state of Karnataka Demographics India census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is ...

) constituency.

Early political career

During Emergency (1975–77), he was arrested and detained in prison along with veteran leaders like

L.K. Advani Lal Krishna Advani (born 8 November 1927) is an Indian politician who served as the 7th Deputy Prime Minister of India from 2002 to 2004. Advani is one of the co-founders and a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He is a longtime memb ...

at the Central Jail in Bengaluru. He was first elected to the

Karnataka Legislative Assembly The Karnataka Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral legislature of the Indian state of Karnataka. Karnataka is one of the six states in India where the state legislature is bicameral, comprising two houses. The two houses ar ...

in the 1997 by-Elections from

, which was the biggest state legislature constituency in India before delimitation. He was re-elected from the same constituency in 1999 and 2004 Assembly elections with impressive margins. In the 2004 elections, he won by a margin of 84,001 votes which is the highest in any Karnataka Assembly election.

Positions held

In 2008, he became the Minister of Health and family welfare in 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 ...

Janata Dal (Secular) The Janata Dal (Secular) is an Indian political party led by former prime minister of India, H. D. Deve Gowda. The party is recognized as a State Party in the states of Karnataka, Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh. It was formed in July 1999 by the ...

(BJP-JD(S)) coalition government. As a minister, he implemented novel schemes and also streamlined the administration of the department. He undertook surprise visits to the hospitals to inspect and review their functioning. Also, he raided many private clinics in rural areas and tried to eliminate the menace of fake medical practitioners in the state. As Minister of Transport in the Yeddyurappa Government from 2008 onwards, he was instrumental in modernizing the department and also using innovative hi-tech methods to automate the working of the department. When Jagadish Shettar became Chief Minister in June 2012, Ashoka was appointed one of the two Deputy chief ministers and entrusted with the ministries of Home and Transport in the

Government of Karnataka The Government of Karnataka, abbreviated as, GoK, or simply Karnataka Government, is a democratically-elected state body with the governor as the ceremonial head to govern the Southwest Indian state of Karnataka. The governor who is appointed ...

. Ashoka is regarded as one of the most influential leaders of the BJP in

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

city and has steered the party to historic victories in the 2010 and 2015

BBMP The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is the administrative body responsible for civic amenities and some infrastructural assets of the Greater Bengaluru metropolitan area. It is the fourth largest Municipal Corporation in India an ...

elections. On 26 August 2019, Ashoka was appointed the Revenue Minister in Karnataka government excluding Muzrai.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashok, R. 1957 births Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Karnataka Karnataka MLAs 1994–1999 Karnataka MLAs 1999–2004 Karnataka MLAs 2004–2007 Karnataka MLAs 2008–2013 Karnataka MLAs 2013–2018 State cabinet ministers of Karnataka Deputy Chief Ministers of Karnataka Living people Karnataka MLAs 2018–2023