B.T. Lalitha Naik

B.T. Lalitha Naik is an Indian social activist, a writer, and a politician. She was the Vice- President of Welfare Party of India and also has been a Minister of Government of Karnataka. She has served as MLA and MLC. 

Lalitha was born in a Lambani community family on April 4, 1945, in a small village, Tangali Tandya in Chikmagalur. Her parents, Ganga Bai and late Balaji Naik were agriculturalists. She got married to Chimpla Naik in 60s. They have three children, all sons. Chimpla Naik died in 1996.
 

Lalitha has got a deep love for literature and writing. She has written several books in her career. After her marriage, she was writing radio plays for the Akashavani station. She is much loved by audiences for her writing and with encouragement, she started writing short stories and poems for Kannada periodicals like Prajavani, Sudha, and Taranga. Naik started gaining attention for her sensitive and progressive views. This popularity of her led her to be nominated as an MLC by the then Chief Minister. In 1991, she won the prestigious  Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award. Later she had joined the Janata Dal during her serving as an MLC.  Later in 1994, she got elected as the Minister for Kannada, Culture, and Department of Women & Child Welfare. In 2014, she elected for the Lok Sabha elections from Gulbarga constituency from Aam Aadmi Party. She has also been a part of several films and serials in Kannada. In 1996, she wrote and acted in the movie, Zadero Pankheru and has acted in the movies Priya-O-Priya and Ashanti,  popular teleserials Mukta Mukta, and Ondu Hennina Kathe.
 

Kuvempu University, Shimoga, honored Lalitha with a doctorate, considering her social and literature service. Lalitha has been awarded many prestigious awards in her career for her social work viz., Rajiv Gandhi National Unity Award in 1995, Kannada Shree award in 2010 and Karnataka Choodamani in the year 2011.