Jana Krishnamurthi

K. Jana Krishnamurthi (24 May 1928 – 25 September 2007) was an Indian political leader who rose to be the President of the

Krishnamurthi was born in Madurai in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. His mother tongue was Tamil. An alumnus of the Chennai Law College, he gave up his successful law practice in Madurai in 1965. He was persuaded by M. S. Golwalkar, the then chief of the RSS, to enter politics.

Political career

An active member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) from 1940, Krishnamurthi took over as the General Secretary of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) in Tamil Nadu at the instance of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He played an active part in building an equity for the relatively unknown BJS in South India.

In 1974, when

In 1993 he moved to Delhi at the request of L. K. Advani and set up the Intellectual Cells of the BJP on Economic, Defence and Foreign Affairs. From 1995 onwards he was in charge of the BJP Headquarters. He also served as the Spokesperson of the Party. In 1998, Krishnamurthi contested the Lok Sabha election from South Chennai and lost by a very small margin. On 14 March 2001 he took over as the President of the BJP from Bangaru Laxman. He held office until June 2002.

Krishnamurthi then became the Union Law Minister in the cabinet of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.^[5] He stepped down in a year, due to ill health. He was a Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament from the State of Gujarat^[6] and an active member of the Parliament Standing Committees on External Affairs and Defence. He was also the Chairman of the Petitions Committee. His tenure will be remembered for his frank and forthright report on Petrol Adulteration.

Death

Krishnamurthi died on 25 September 2007. He succumbed to a cardio-respiratory arrest at a private hospital in Chennai. His wife, Bhagyalakshmi died on 14 May 2021. He is survived by two sons (Krishnaswamy and Anantha Narayan) and three daughters (Radhika, Bharathi, and Shanthi).

References