K. Jana Krishnamurthi

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(24 May, 1928 – 25 September, 2007)

Shri K. Jana Krishnamurthi (24 May, 1928 – 25 September, 2007) was the former National President of the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2001. A former Union Law Minister Shri Krishnamurthi was the second person from Tamil Nadu to head a National Party in India after Kamaraj.

He was born in Madurai in Tamil Nadu. An alumnus of the Chennai Law College, he gave up his successful law practice in Madurai High Court in 1965. He was persuaded by M. S. Golwalkar Ji, the then Sarsanghchalak of the RSS, to enter politics.
An active member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sanghfrom 1940, Shri Krishnamurthi took over as the General Secretary of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) in Tamil Nadu at the instance of Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee. He played an active part in building equity for the relatively unknown BJS in South India.

In 1975 when emergency was declared, he was the secretary of the resistance movement in Tamil Nadu. In 1977 when BJS merged with the Janata Party, he became the General Secretary of that party’s Tamil Nadu unit. In 1980, he helped found the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) along with Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Shri Lal Krishna Advani, Shri SS Bhandari, Shri Kushabhau Thakre and Shri Jaganatha Rao Joshi. He was the founder National Secretary. In 1983 he became the General Secretary and from 1985 he was the Vice-President of the Party. From 1980 to 1990, he helped the BJP expand in the four Southern states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

In 1993 he moved to Delhi at the request of Shri 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. He then became the Union Law Minister in the cabinet of Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee and on 14 March 2001 he assumed the responsibility of the National President of the BJP. He held office until June 2002.
Shri K. Jana Krishnamurthi died on 25 September, 2007. We pay our respect to him on his jayanti.