The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has forgotten former Union minister and senior party leader HN Ananth Kumar since his death in 2018, his daughter Vijeta Ananthkumar has said. Taking exception to the fact that no major roads, metro stations or other infrastructure projects have been named after the late leader, Vijeta said, “Not acknowledging his contributions by naming him in inaugural programs, roads, rail lines is trivial. He is alive in the hearts of lakhs of people. The party that's forgetting him requires self reflection.”
Vijeta made the comment while sharing an article by the Kannada portal Vishwa Vani, which pointed out that Race Course Road in Bengaluru has been renamed in honour of actor-politician Ambareesh, while the 12 km Outer Ring Road (ORR) has been renamed after late actor Puneeth Rajkumar. However, no such move has been made by the BJP to honour Ananth Kumar, it added.
Ananth Kumar passed away at the age of 59 in 2018, and was the Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers and Parliamentary Affairs at the time of his death. He represented the South Bengaluru constituency in the Lok Sabha since 1996 and was succeeded by Tejasvi Surya following his death. Ananth Kumar was one of the few ministers to have served under both Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi. He was also a six-term MP and one of the senior BJP leaders from Karnataka.
Appa formally joined BJP in 1987 and worked for it till his last breath.
— Vijeta AnanthKumar (@vijeta_at) March 28, 2023
Not acknowledging his contributions by naming him in inaugural programs, roads, rail lines is trivial. He is alive in the hearts of lakhs of people.
The party that's forgetting him requires self reflection pic.twitter.com/JcPMqHOSPO
The leader had a strong association with the BJP, as he started his political career with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in 1959. Subsequently, he joined the BJP and rose through the ranks, becoming the party’s National Secretary in 1995. He was known as a popular leader who brought forth many welfare schemes in Karnataka, and also pushed for the Bengaluru metro with the Vajpayee government.