Venkaiah Naidu: The meat lover in a vegetarian political party

NDA's man for Vice Presidency views loyalty to his party as the leitmotif of his political career

In the 1970s, Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu was a rare politician in Andhra Pradesh politics. He was a member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the earlier avatar of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), when in southern India the Jana Sangh was perceived as primarily north India based, a Brahmin-Baniya party with no rural roots and a party that talked of Hindi’s superiority over other regional languages. But most of all, Jana Sangh was seen as a party that derided non-vegetarianism.

A young Naidu was convinced that much of the criticism of Jana Sangh stemmed from lack of awareness about the party. However,