He was a member of the 14th Lok Sabha of India where he represented the Mysore constituency of Karnataka.

He served as a cabinet minister in the government of Karnataka holding the Forest, ecology and environment department from 2009 to 2011.

[2] He was a member of the Karnataka Legislative Council from 15 June 2010 till the end of his tenure in Jan 2016.

He unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Hassan constituency in 2014 as a BJP candidate against former Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda.

[4] President Droupadi Murmu appointed Vijayashankar as Governor of Meghalaya on 27 June 2024.