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KC Venugopal: From campus politics to replacing Digvijay Singh

  • An avid sports fan and a university-level volleyball player, Venugopal played for the Payyanur College
  • He started climbing the political ladder ever since he relocated himself from Kannur to Alappuzha
KC Venugopal aicc general secretary karnataka Digvijay Singh

KC Venugopal was chosen the AICC general secretary in charge of poll-bound Karnataka on Saturday, replacing senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh.

A Congress MP from the Alappuzha constituency, Venugopal was a minister of state for civil aviation in the UPA government. The appointment has come as a relief to the Congress in Karnataka who have been vehemently opposing Digvijay.

Let's take a look at Venugopal's political journey so far.

Venugopal was born in February 1963 to Kunjukrishnan and Janaki Amma in Kannur. An avid sports fan and a university-level volleyball player, he played for the Payyanur College and the Calicut University during his college days. 

He came to politics through the student movement. He was the state president of the KSU and the Indian Youth Congress. A post-graduate in mathematics, Venugopal's loyalty and commitment to the late veteran leader K Karunakaran also helped in his rapid political evolution. 

The Kannur native started climbing the political ladder ever since he relocated himself to Alappuzha following his election victory from the constituency in the 1996 Assembly elections, which was then followed by his success in the two Assembly elections in 2001 and 2006 

Venugopal served as the minister for Devaswom and tourism in the Oommen Chandy ministry from 2004 to 2006. He then contested in the Lok Sabha elections from Alappuzha in 2009 and won with a comfortable margin, marking his rise to the top.

In 2013, while he was the minister of state for civil aviation, Venugopal busted a ticket scam while travelling on one of the Air India flights. He was travelling to Kochi when he noticed over 20 vacant seats on the flight, in which a Kerala minister was denied seat citing  'non-availability of tickets'. After Venugopal filed a complaint, Air India launched an inquiry and suspended three officers in connection with the incident.

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