Surya was born on 16 November 1990 to Rama and L.A. Suryanarayana, who had previously been Joint Commissioner of Excise. At the age of 9, he sold his paintings and donated the amount to the Army's Kargil fund. He was then awarded the National Balashree Honour in 2001 while studying at Sri Kumaran Children’s Home, Thyagarajanagar. He later graduated from Bangalore Institute of Legal Studies with a Bachelor of Academic Law and an LLB. He is trained in Carnatic music and founded an NGO called Arise India, which works in the area of school education. He has previously written for IndiaFacts. Surya considers B. R. Ambedkar as an inspiration since childhood.
The Bangalore South was governed since 1996 by former minister Ananth Kumar until his death in 2018. Tejasvi Surya was chosen to contest for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from this constituency over Kumar's wife, Tejaswini Ananth Kumar, due to his previous work. While she initially had the support of BJP Karnataka state president B.S. Yeddyurappa, senior BJP and RSS leader B.L. Santosh convinced the party's leadership to choose Surya. He won the elections by defeating B. K. Hariprasad of Congress by 3,31,192 votes, making him the youngest MP to represent the BJP, after having assumed office at the age of 28 years, 6 months, 7 days. Surya took oath as an MP in Kannada on 17 June 2019. In June 2019, he requested the central government to revert its 2014 decision to remove the requirement of knowing the local language in the recruitment for banks. On 10 July 2019, during the Zero Hour, Surya requested the Home MinisterAmit Shah to extend the National Register of Citizens to Karnataka, citing the increasing influx of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in his state. When a holy site was vandalised in Hampi, Surya raised the issue in Parliament, urging the government to ensure better security for the country's sacred monuments. He sought to know whether the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare would ban electronic nicotine delivery systems, including e-cigarettes. In October 2019, Surya expressed his concern over the short term for the city's Mayor. He urged the Chief Minister of Karnataka to draft and pass an exclusive legislation for Bengaluru, the Nava Bengaluru Act, to replace the Karnataka Municipalities Act, 1975. On the problem of garbage in Bengaluru, Surya responded that he could only bring it to the notice of the authorities and suggested to scold them. He then claimed he lacked any authority to solve the problem. This response received mixed criticism from the public. During the COVID-19 pandemic in India, Surya launched a Bengaluru South coronavirus task force, which included free home delivery of essential goods, emergency medical assistance, and mobile COVID-19 testing kiosks.
Political views
Surya is a strong supporter of Hindutva. He credits Swami Vivekananda, BR Ambedkar, Aurobindo and Vir Savarkar for inspiring him and shaping his ideology of Hindutva and Indian cultural pride. He is an RSS swayamsevak and has been a supporter of same-sex marriage. He attributed the Citizenship Amendment Act protests to be led by 'uneducated, illiterate, and puncture-wallahs'. He also said 'namby-pamby secularism had no place in new India'. Surya had previously called the supporters of Narendra Modi as patriots, and claimed that those who did not support Modi were "anti-India". On another occasion, he had said that the "BJP should unapologetically be a party for Hindus".
Allegations of misconduct
The Indian National Congress, an Indian political party, shared screenshots of tweets posted by a woman who alleged that Surya had abused her. Following this and the announcement of his Lok Sabha candidature, Surya obtained a temporary injunction against 49 media outlets and social media platforms, restraining them from publishing any "defamatory statements" against him. In April 2019, Surya was summoned by the Karnataka State Commission for Women for his alleged abuse of the woman, in addition to a tweet of his that opposed reservations for women. The Commission later dropped the case at the request of the woman in question, who wrote that she and Surya were "good friends" and that the complaint against him by the Congress was "politically motivated". Surya's 2015 tweet quoting Tarek Fatah's sexual remarks on Arab women was criticised by Sanjay Jha and prominent citizens of Arab countries in April 2020.
