Oscar Fernandes

Oscar Fernandes Biography

Oscar Fernandes is an Indian politician from Indian National Congress. A veteran leader of the party, he has served as Union Cabinet Minister for Transport, Road and Highways and Labour and Employment in UPA led government, headed by Manmohan Singh. A confidant of the present Congress President Rahul Gandhi, he is also known as a decision maker within the party. He hails from Karnataka, and has served as a member of both upper house and lower house of parliament. He currently serves as the MP of Rajya Sabha for Karnataka since 2010, Director in The Associated Journals Private Limited since 2010 and Director in Young Indian since 2011.

Oscar hails from Uduppi of present-day Karnataka state. He was born on 27 March 1941 in British India.  He belonged to a Christian family of 12 children and grew up with a strong Catholic background. He also took part in many activities of church since young. He married Blossom Mathias Prabhu in 1981 and the couple has one son and one daughter.

He entered active politics in the early 1980s, when he got elected to Lok Sabha for the first time in 1980 from Udupi constituency in Karnataka. He retained the seat for 1984, 1989, 1991 and 1996 elections as well. In 1998 he joined Rajya Sabha for the first time, and got re-elected in 2004. He served as AICC General Secretary and the Minister of State (Independent charge) of the Ministry of Labour and Employment during the first term of Manmohan Singh as PM. Statistics and Programme Implementation, NRI Affairs, Youth and Sports Affairs etc are a few more portfolios he held in UPA government later.

Published: September 18, 2018

Updated: September 18, 2018