Dinesh Gundu Rao

Dinesh Gundu Rao (born 9 October 1969) is an Indian politician of Indian National Congress from Karnataka. He is serving as the Minister for Health and Family Welfare in the Government of Karnataka.^[1] He is also the Incharge of All India Congress Committee of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.^[2] He was the President of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee^[3] and the member of Karnataka Legislative Assembly.

Dinesh Gundu Rao
Cabinet Minister, Government of Karnataka
Incumbent
Assumed office 27 May 2023
Governor	Thawarchand Gehlot
Cabinet	Second Siddaramaiah ministry
Chief Minister	Siddaramaiah
Ministry and Departments	Health & Family Welfare
Preceded by	K.Sudhakar
In office 20 May 2015 – 21 June 2016
Governor	Vajubhai Vala
Cabinet	First Siddaramaiah ministry
Chief Minister	Siddaramaiah
Ministry and Departments	Food & Civil Supplies Consumer Affairs
Preceded by	D. N. Jeevaraj
Succeeded by	U. T. Khader
Member of Karnataka Legislative Assembly
Incumbent
Assumed office 25 October 1999
Preceded by	B. Muniyappa
Constituency	Gandhi Nagar
Incharge of AICC for Puducherry and Tamil Nadu
In office 11 September 2020 – 24 December 2023
President	Mallikarjun Kharge
Succeeded by	Ajoy Kumar
President of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee
In office 4 July 2018 – 11 March 2020
Preceded by	G. Parameshwara
Succeeded by	D. K. Shivakumar
Personal details
Born	(1969-10-09) 9 October 1969 (age 55) Kushalanagar, Mysore State, India
Political party	Indian National Congress
Spouse	Tabassum Rao
Children	2
Parent	R. Gundu Rao
Residence(s)	Bengaluru, Karnataka
Alma mater	Bishop Cotton Boys' School,B.M.S. College of Engineering,B.M.S. Institute of Technology and Management

Personal life

Dinesh Gundu Rao was born in a Hindu family^[4][5][6] in Kushal Nagar, Coorg. He is the second of the three sons of former Chief Minister of Karnataka, R. Gundu Rao.^[7]

Gundu Rao attended Bishop Cotton Boys' School in Bangalore. He completed a B.E in Electronics and Communications from B.M.S. College of Engineering in 1992.^[8]

He married Tabassum Rao and has two daughters, living in Bangalore, Karnataka.

Political career

Gundu Rao was the Congress candidate for Assembly Constituency (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike District) in the 1999 Karnataka Legislative Assembly Elections. The count of total votes polled for this election was 61212. Out of these, Dinesh Gundurao of Congress secured 40797 votes to win the seat, defeating the nearest rival Nagaraj V of JD (S) by a margin of 28268 votes.

He was president of the Karnataka Youth Congress, and is currently a Member of the Legislative Assembly for sixth time (MLA).^[9] He is six time winner in the Karnataka elections.^[10] Dinesh Gundu Rao was minister of state for food, civil supplies and consumer affairs in the government of Karnataka, and he was President of the KPCC.^[11]

On 11 September 2020 he was appointed All India Congress Committee incharge of Goa, Puducherry & Tamil Nadu. On 4th January 2023 Manickam Tagore succeeded him as AICC incharge of Goa.

References

1. "Government will enroll doctors at IIMB: Dinesh Gundu Rao". The Hindu. 1 July 2023. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
2. Govtofkarnataka and Congress India website
3. http://www.politicalworld.in/karnataka-mla-img/DINESHGUNDURAO/index.html ^{[dead link]}
4. "'Support ingenious coalition candidate Vijayashankar': KPCC President Dinesh Gundu Rao to Brahmin community". Star of Mysore. 16 April 2019. Retrieved 13 July 2024. However, in the Congress the Speaker, Revenue Minister, KPCC President are all from Brahmin community. What more a party needs to do, he asked.
5. Swamy, Rohini (2 November 2018). "Dinesh Gundu Rao: The accidental politician holding together a shaky alliance". ThePrint. Retrieved 13 July 2024. "It is no secret that I was born a Muslim and my husband Dinesh Gundu Rao, a Brahmin. We have been happily married for over two decades now," she said in a Facebook post.
6. Iyer, Lakshmi (4 July 2018). "Rahul Gandhi appoints Dinesh Gundu Rao as Karnataka Congress chief". Bangalore Mirror. Retrieved 13 July 2024. Karnataka leaders, however, pointed that in terms of caste, Gundu Rao, a brahmin, would not bring much votes to the party.
7. "Here, it's advantage Dinesh Gundurao". Deccan Chronicle. 18 April 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
8. "Profile". www.bangalorewaves.com. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
9. "Chaos in House,near-fight outside". The Times of India. 10 July 2010. Archived from the original on 20 August 2012. Retrieved 10 June 2011.
10. Prabhu, Nagesh (28 April 2018). "Bengaluru has become more aspirational: Dinesh Gundu Rao". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
11. "Dinesh Gundu Rao, Gandhinagar constituency Karnataka election results 2018: Congress retains seat". The Financial Express. 14 May 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2018.