Background
Kushabhau Thakre was born at Dhar, Madhya Pradesh in a Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu family to parents Doctor Sundar Rao Shripati Rao Thakre (father) and Smt.
politician member of the Lok Sabha
Kushabhau Thakre was born at Dhar, Madhya Pradesh in a Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu family to parents Doctor Sundar Rao Shripati Rao Thakre (father) and Smt.
He was educated at Dhar and Gwalior.
Shanta Bai Sundar Rao Thakre (mother). In 1942 he was inducted as a Pracharak by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh then moved to the Ratlam Division (Ratlam, Ujjain, Mandsaur, Jhabua, Chittaur, Kota, Bundi, Jhalawad, Banswada(Raj), Dahod (Gujarat)). In 1956 he became Secretary (Organisation) Madhya Pradesh of Bharatiya Jana Sangh.
He was appointed All India Secretary of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Orissa and also additional in charge of Gujarat in 1967.
In 1974 he was made All India Secretary (Organisation). During the 1977–1979 Emergency, he was jailed for 19 months alongside other opposition political leaders.
He was elected to Lok Sabha in 1979 in a by-election from Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh. When the Bharatiya Janata Party was formed in 1980, he was appointed as a Secretary and in charge of Gujarat, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh.
Remained on this post until 1984.
Throughout the years, he held offices as a national General Secretary, Vice-President or "in-charge" of a particular state. On April 14, 1998 Thakre was elected as President of the Bharatiya Janata Party. In August 2000, he stepped down from this post.
A true visionary and an efficient team builder Thakre has major contribution in building the organisation in Chhattisgarh.
Leaders groomed by Thakre hold important positions in the state Government. He died December 28, 2003 at the age of 81 at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi after prolonged illness as he was suffering from kidney cancer.
Many of place are named after Thakre in Bharatiya Janata Party rulling states. Like Kushabhau Thakre Patrakarita Avam Jansanchar University in Raipur, Kushabhau Thakre Nursing College & Kushabhau Thakre Inter-State Business Terminal in Bhopal, Kushabhau Thakre Community Hall in Ahmedabad and Kushabhau Thakre Road in Indore.
He moved up in the Jana Sangh, the political wing of the Royal Statistical Society, UK at the time, and then in the Janata Party when the parties merged.