"I also congratulate A.K. Antonyji, who celebrates his 70th birthday today," Dikshit said while delivering vote of thanks to party leaders and workers who gathered here to mark the Congress' anniversary.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, other senior leaders and party workers acknowledged Dikshit's remarks on Antony with loud applause.
"There is no function," said Antony's office when asked about the birthday celebrations.
A.K. Antony
Born-28 December 1940 (age 69)
Cherthala, India
Political party-INC
Spouse(s)-Elizabeth Antony
Alma mater- Maharajas College
Government Law College
A K Antony(Arackaparambil Kurian Antony) is an Indian politician belonging to the Indian National Congress and the current Defence Minister of India.He is married to Elizabeth Antony, a Syrian Orthodox Christian, and they have two sons named Anil Kurien Antony and Ajith Paul Antony.
A. K. Antony was born at Cherthala, in Alappuzha district of Kerala. He completed his primary education in Holy Family Boys High school (Lower primary) and Government Boys High school guguifi (Upper primary), Cherthala (both are mixed higher secondary schools now and the latter has changed its name to Sree Narayana Memorial Government Higher Secondary school) and completed his B. A. from Maharajas College, Ernakulam and B. L. from Government Law College, Ernakulam.
He is a former Chief Minister of Kerala. The first term was from April 27, 1977 to October 27, 1978 after K. Karunakaran resigned following accusations in the Rajan case; the second one was from March 22, 1995 to May 9, 1996 after K. Karunakaran resigned in connection with the ISRO case; and the third term from May 17, 2001 to August 29, 2004. When he became Chief Minister in 1977, he was the youngest Chief Minister of the State. He was the Leader of Opposition in Kerala Legislative Assembly during 1996 to 2001.
He failed to retain power on the first two occasions as Chief minister. In 2004, immediately after the Congress in Kerala suffered a total rout in the Lok Sabha elections amid factional politics and in-fighting within the Congress Party, Antony resigned as the Chief Minister of Kerala. He was succeeded by Oommen Chandy.
He was a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha between 1985 and 1995 and was the Minister for Civil Supplies, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution for a year in 1994 during the tenure of Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao. He resigned over allegations of corruption attributed to the ministry. He was not mentioned in the allegations.
In 2005, A. K. Antony entered the Rajya Sabha and was inducted into the Union Council of Ministers as Defence Minister following Natwar Singh's expulsion from the Congress and Pranab Mukherjee's transfer to the Ministry of External Affairs. After the Congress again won the elections in 2009 and formed the government once again under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Antony retained the portfolio of Defence for the second term.