Governor of Haryana

Bandaru Dattatreya (born June 12, 1947) is an Indian politician currently serving as the Governor of Haryana since 2021. He previously served as the 20th Governor of Himachal Pradesh and was a Member of Parliament for Secunderabad in the Lok Sabha from 2014 to 2019. Dattatreya is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Born in Hyderabad, Dattatreya completed his undergraduate degree in science. He became involved with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in 1965 and was imprisoned during the Emergency period. In 1991, he was first elected to the Lok Sabha from Secunderabad. In 1997, he became the president of the BJP’s state unit. Dattatreya was re-elected in 1998 and appointed Union Minister of State for Urban Development in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s second term. He was re-elected again in 1999 and continued as Minister of State in Vajpayee’s third ministry. However, he lost in the 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha elections. In 2013, he was appointed BJP national vice-president. In May 2014, he returned to the Lok Sabha from Secunderabad, and later that year, he was appointed Minister of State for Labour and Employment in the Narendra Modi government, becoming the only minister from Telangana in the cabinet.

Governor of Haryana, Dattatreya began his political career by joining the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in 1965, where he served as a pracharak (propagator) until 1968. He also worked as the state joint secretary of the Loka Sangarsha Samiti, which was part of the Jayaprakash Narayan-led Total Revolution Movement, and was imprisoned during the Emergency in the 1970s.

In 1980, Dattatreya officially became a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and was appointed general secretary of the party’s Andhra Pradesh unit, a position he held until 1989.

Dattatreya first entered the Lok Sabha in 1991, winning the Secunderabad constituency by a margin of 85,063 votes, defeating T. Manemma Anjaiah of the Indian National Congress. He was the only BJP candidate to win a seat in Andhra Pradesh that year. In 1997, he became the president of the BJP’s Andhra Pradesh unit.

In the 1996 general elections, Dattatreya lost to P.V. Rajeshwara Rao. However, in the 1998 election, he defeated Rao by a significant margin of 185,910 votes, regaining his seat in the Lok Sabha. Rediff.com credited his efforts with helping the BJP win four seats in the state. Dattatreya served as Union Minister of State (MoS) for Urban Development in the second Vajpayee ministry from 1998 to 1999.

In 1999, Dattatreya was re-elected to the Lok Sabha for a third term. He again served as Union MoS for Urban Development in the third Vajpayee ministry until 2001, after which he became Union MoS for Railways from 2001 to 2003. He was given the Urban Development portfolio again in 2003.

Dattatreya lost the 2004 general election but was appointed the BJP’s national secretary in the same year, serving in that role until 2006. He was then made the president of the party’s Andhra Pradesh unit and, three years later, became a national executive member of the BJP. In the 2009 general election, he lost his seat again, but was appointed national vice-president of the party in 2013.

In May 2014, Dattatreya returned to the Lok Sabha, winning the Secunderabad constituency for the fourth time. Later that year, on November 9, he was appointed MoS for Labour and Employment in the Modi ministry, becoming the only minister from Telangana. He resigned from this post on September 1, 2017, and subsequently became a member of the standing committee on Finance.

In March 2019, Dattatreya was replaced by former MLA G. Kishan Reddy as the BJP’s candidate for Secunderabad in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. That same year, he was appointed the Governor of Himachal Pradesh.