New Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Faces Daunting Tasks Ahead

At 36, Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu, the youngest minister in the Narendra Modi Cabinet, will pilot the all-important Civil Aviation Ministry.

While he is no stranger to high pressure situations, the electrical engineering graduate from Purdue University, will have to use all the learnings and skills he picked up at Long Island University where he earned an MBA degree.

It is not a surprise that the TDP has demanded and got the Civil Aviation Ministry which it held earlier, with senior party leader Ashok Gajapathi Raju as the minister, in the NDA 1.0 government. The party exited the government in 2018, when then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government could not provide special status to Andhra Pradesh. Raju and another junior minister YS Chaudhury resigned and TDP broke ties with the NDA 1.0.

Ram Mohan takes over the reins of the ministry at a critical juncture when airline passenger traffic is skyrocketing, India has become the biggest market for commercial aircraft, and demand for new airport infrastructure is a dire urgency.

Keeping in tune with the demands of the sector, the BJP’s Sankalp Patra—or the election manifesto—also listed a long and aggressive agenda for implementation, including building and making India an aerospace manufacturing hub, if elected back to power. Clearly, the new minister will have his plate full.

But taking on challenges is nothing new for the young politician.

Making it to the Parliament for the third consecutive time, with a win from the family pocket borough Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh, Ram Mohan was pushed into politics at an early age in 2012 on the death of his father K Yerran Naidu, a political heavyweight and former Union Minister in the United Front Government.

Ram Mohan was quick to pick up the ropes, first as constituency in-charge for the party, and then as the second-youngest member in the 16th Lok Sabha in 2014. It also helped that he had the company of several politicians in the family.

His uncle Kinjarapu Atchannaidu is the TDP state president and the current MLA from Tekkali constituency in Srikakulam. His sister Bhavani was till recently the MLA of Rajahmundry City, which is now represented by her husband, Adireddy Vasu. Bandaru Satyanarayanamurthy, Ram Mohan’s father-in-law is the legislator from Madugula in the neighbouring Anakapalli district.

Considered company to Chandrababu Naidu’s son Nara Lokesh, Ram Mohan was seen prominently, and in a combative mode, when N Chandrababu Naidu was jailed for almost 60 days in the skill development case in September 2023.

As a first-time contestant for the MP seat from Srikakulam in 2014, Ram Mohan undertook a successful cycle yatra and reached out to the party rank and file, and the people alike. He took the seat from YSRCP’s Dr Killi Krupa Rani, with a margin of 1.75 lakh votes. It was a revenge of sorts as Killi Krupa Rani had previously defeated his father Yerran Naidu, who had represented the constituency for almost 20 years till then.

Over the years, a close association with TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu, has paved the way for Ram Mohan’s meteoric rise in state politics and now has catapulted him to an important ministry and a prominent role in central politics.

However, politics is an unpredictable game. Just like during its outing with the NDA 1.0 government, this time too TDP has a long list of demands, including a special status for Andhra apart from a huge requirement of funds. And then, the young minister will have to implement an aggressive ministry agenda, which will require close working with his other Cabinet colleagues.

It remains to be seen how the dynamics of running a heavy ministry and balancing the needs of the state will play out for the first-time minister.