Bandaru Dattatreya

Bandaru Dattatreya Biography

Bandaru Dattatreya is an Indian politician from Telangana, who currently is a parliamentarian and a cabinet minister of Narendra Modi Government. He is a member of Bharatiya Janata Party. One of the prominent politicians from Secunderabad, he has been selected to 10th, 12th, 13th Lok Sabhas from the same constituency. Currently he serves as Minister of Labour and Employment in the Narendra Modi Government. He earlier served as president of the United Andhra Pradesh unit of BJP, prior to his entry to parliament for the fourth time. In 2016 January this popular figure came to limelight across the nation when he became the prime accused of being responsible for the suicide of Dalit activist Rohith Vemula on January 17. Rohith was a research scholar at University of Hyderabad.

He was born in Hyderabad on 26 Feb 1947. He started his political journey with RSS, a wing of Bharatiya Janata Party. He was a pracharak before joining the BJP. Rose to prominence in the early 1980s, he became the state Secretary of BJP in the year 1980. During the period 1981 to 1989, he served as the general secretary of the party in Andhra Pradesh. He got elected to Lok Sabha for the first time in 1991, where he served as a member of Public Accounts Committee and Committee on Welfare of SCs, STs and Minorities. Later he got elected to Lok Sabha during 12th, 13^th and 16^th sections from Secunderabad constituency.

In 2014, he served as BJP National Vice-President and the Chairman of committee on OBC's welfare, followed by Ministry of State (Independent Charge) - Labour and Employment. In 2016, he became the prime accused of the suicide of a research student at University of Hyderabad. Rohith Vemula was a student activist who belonged to the group of 4 members involved in a protest against the execution of Yakub Memon. It led to the clash with ABVP resulting in his suspension. Dattatreya had earlier written a letter to complaint to Education Minister Smriti Irani. Student protests claim that it was his letter which resulted in Rohith Vemula’s suspension and later his suicide.

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Updated: January 20, 2016