Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu

Indian politician (born 1987)

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Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu (born 18 December 1987) is an Indian politician who is serving as the 33rd Minister of Civil Aviation since June 2024. He represents the Srikakulam Lok Sabha constituency and has been elected in the 16th, 17th, and 18th Lok Sabha. He first won the seat in the 2014 Indian general election and was re-elected in 2019 and 2024 as a candidate of the Telugu Desam Party. He serves as the National General Secretary of the TDP and as the party's leader in the Lok Sabha.

Early life and education

Naidu was born in Nimmada, Srikakulam. He is the son of Kinjarapu Yerran Naidu, a member of the Telugu Desam Party, and Kinjarapu Vijayakumari. His father was a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from the Tekkali constituency and subsequently became a Member of Parliament (MP) from Srikakulam, later serving as a Union Minister for Rural Development in the United Front government between 1996 and 1998.

He completed his primary schooling in Srikakulam and later on joined Delhi Public School, R. K. Puram, Delhi, after his father became an MP and moved to Delhi. He then earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University, United States, and an MBA from Long Island University. He worked for a year in Singapore before returning to India. His uncle, Kinjarapu Atchannaidu, is a senior politician of the TDP and also a minister in the Government of Andhra Pradesh.

Personal life

Naidu, born in Nimmada village Kotabommali mandal Srikakulam district, belongs to the Velama Community(caste).

He married Sravya Bandaru in June 2017, the youngest daughter of the former minister and Telugu Desam Party Vice-President, Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy.

Political career

Naidu entered politics in 2012 after the death of his father. He represents the Srikakulam Parliamentary constituency. Appointed as the constituency in-charge in 2013, he contested the 2014 elections and won by a margin of 127,576 votes. Kinjarupu is the second youngest Member of Parliament in the 16th Lok Sabha. He introduced a private member's bill demanding the establishment of a railway zone in Andhra Pradesh with Visakhapatnam as its headquarters. In the 2024 Indian general election in Andhra Pradesh, he represented TDP and won by a majority of 3,27,901 votes from the Srikakulam Lok Sabha constituency. He is the incumbent Union Minister of Civil Aviation, India.

Performance in Parliament

Performance in the Lok Sabha, 2019-20

Parliamentary Committees

He is a member of the standing committee on Railways and Home Affairs, Consultative Committee on Ministry of Tourism and Culture and in the Committee on Welfare of other Backward Classes and Official Language Department in the 16th Lok Sabha.

At the United Nations

Kinjarapu has represented India at the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly in the 22nd meeting of the first committee on Disarmament. He reiterated India's commitment to upholding the UN Charter's ideals and promoting international peace through multilateral cooperation. Representing India at the United Nations, he emphasized the importance of advancing nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation efforts.

As the Minister for Civil Aviation

On 10 June 2024, Naidu was allocated the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

On 12 June 2025 he visited Ahmedabad, Gujarat shortly after the crash of London-bound Air India flight AI171

Electoral history

Policy positions

In October 2019, he wrote an article in The News Minute criticizing the Andhra Pradesh government under Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy for its sand mining policy. He argued that the ban on sand mining from May to September 2019 disrupted the construction industry and affected the livelihoods of over 2 million laborers.