Ananth Kumar, (born 22 July 1959) is a member of the 15th Lok Sabha. He represents the Bangalore South Lok Sabha constituency of Karnataka and is an influential leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka.

Ananth Kumar was born on 22 July 1959 in Bangalore, Karnataka to Sri.H.N. Narayan Sastry and Smt.Girija. He hails from a traditional Telugu speaking Brahmin family of the Mulukanadu subcaste. He graduated in the faculty of Arts (B.A) from K.S.Arts College at Hubli which is affiliated to the Karnatak University and later, completed his bachelors in law (L.L.B) from J.S.S. Law College affiliated to the Mysore University. He married Smt.Tejaswini and the couple have 2 daughters - Aishwarya, who is an accomplished law student currently pursuing law in Pune and Vijeta.

Having been influenced by the ideology of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh from his childhood, he naturally chose Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the students wing of the Sangh Parivar to begin his public life. As an important office bearer of the ABVP, he became one of the most popular and influential Student's union leader in Karnataka. During the Emergency, he was imprisoned along with thousands of other student activists. Very early in his life, he was elected as the State Secretary of the ABVP and later, became its National Secretary in 1985.