Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visits Tejaswini Ananthkumar

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met Tejaswini Ananthkumar at her residence in Basavanagudi, Bengaluru, on Thursday evening in a first high profile visit by a union minister after the BJP denied her a ticket to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Family sources described it as a courtesy call.

Singh spent more than half an hour recollecting old memories with the late union minister. He also discussed nonprofit Adamya Chetana activities that include providing midday meals to school children and free meals to people from low-income groups, and weekly tree planting activities. He also took updates about the Ananthkumar Foundation’s activities.


Singh and Kumar had worked closely in the party and shared a good rapport. When Singh was the BJP national president for four years from 2005, Kumar was party's national general secretary. Singh could not visit Kumar after he fell sick three years ago and died.

Besides the school meal programme, Tejaswini Ananthkumar has been closely engaged with her weekly tree planting activities, and has completed 303 weeks, including during the week her husband died.

She was expected to succeed her husband as BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate for Bengaluru South, but the party sprang a surprise by denying her the ticket. She, however, has been made vice president of the Karnataka unit of the BJP.