Who is Virendra Kumar?

Virendra Kumar, 63,  is a Dalit leader and six-term Lok Sabha MP from Tikamgarh in Madhya Pradesh’s Bundelkhand region.

Virendra Kumar, 63,  is a Dalit leader and six-term Lok Sabha MP from Tikamgarh in Madhya Pradesh’s Bundelkhand region. Formerly the convenor of the ABVP, District Sagar in 1977-79, he was appointed Minister of State in the Ministry of Women and Child Development as well as MoS of Minority Affairs.

Kumar belongs to the cadre of leaders who participated in the JP Movement of 1975; he was jailed for 16 months during the Emergency. He holds a masters degree in economics and a PhD in child labour. An SC leader, he claims to have engaged youth in fighting caste and class barriers, apart from working towards building orphanages and schools for the differently-abled and old-age homes.