Santosh Lad was born on 27 February 1975 in Sandur taluk of Bellary district. He has one older sister. He completed his B. Com from Sandur Education Society's Arts, Science & Commerce College, Bellary, Karnataka. His family was affluent because of their involvement in the mining industry since the 1950s. Santosh was an active member of the sports community and actively participated in local tournaments and state level competitions. He participated in U-21 Cricket state-level tournament KSCA representing Tumkur Zone as a team member and as captain.
Personal life
He is married to Keerthi Lad; they have one son named Karan Lad. Lad's father, Shivaji Lad, died when Lad was 16 years old. He grew his family business and diversified it into other areas and, at the same time, built his political career.
Political career
Lad started his political career a counselor from Sandur taluk. He had very little success in taluk panchayat elections, where he lost marginally in his first election. He went on to win both seats he contested in the following election, contributing to his party gaining the majority during that period. Lad contested for MLA election against a strong contender from the Congress Party. He represented the Janata Dal party and was the youngest MLA, along with the first person from his party to win Sandur constituency; the election was won with a record margin. Lad was part of the government formation under H. D. Kumaraswamy, chief minister of the Karnataka state. In the 2008 Karnataka Assembly elections, he won Kalghatgi constituency in Dharwad district. He currently is an active member and represents Indian National Congress. In the 2013 Karnataka state assembly election, Santosh Lad won with a margin of over 45,000 votes, to win consecutively for the second time from Kalghatgi and third time overall. Congress secured an absolute majority to form the government. Santosh Lad was appointed as Minister of State for Information and Infrastructure In 2018, legislative elections, he lost to C.M Nimbannanavar of BJP, with a margin of 20,997 votes
Initiatives
Santosh Lad was appointed as state representative to oversee the rescue operation in the worst flooded area of Uttarakhand, accompanied by a team headed by Hemanth Nimbalkar, Kari Gowda, and Naveen Raj Singh. After over ten days of rescue operations, the team was able to rescue everyone except 14 people for whom an extensive search was carried out.
Business Association
Lad comes from one of the oldest business families in the mining business. Their family has been in the mining business for over six decades. Lad spearheaded the growth of the business and diversified into other areas such as real estate, technology, entertainment, air cargo, IT & ITES, and agricultural business. All businesses are under the umbrella of S Lad Group.
Lad Community
The traditional profession of the Laad Community is commerce and trade. The community is scattered all over India, and are originally from 'Laat Desh' in South Gujarat. The dialect spoken by the community is called Chaurasi and is a mixture of Gujarati, Rajasthani and Marathi. In Karnataka, the community is settled in Bangalore, Mysore, Srirangapatna, Sira, Ganjam, Dharwad, Hubli, Bijapur, Gulburga and Belagur, with small numbers in Savanur, Chitradurga, Shimoga and NR Pur. In 2005, an analysis of the grammar and structure of the Chaurasi language by JP Narayan Laad was published by the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore. The Laad community is also mentioned in the memoirs of Francis Buchanan who toured Mysore State after the fall of Tippu Sultan in 1799.
Positions held
1998 – Elected councillor, Sandur Town Panchayat
2003 – Elected MLA from Sandur representing Janata Dal
2007 – Joined Indian National Congress
2008 – Elected MLA from Kalghatgi representing Indian National Congress
