Mrs. Indira Gandhi
Indira Gandhi was First Prime Minister of India from 1966-1977 and 1980-1984. The daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru. The only child of Jawaharlal Nehru, her name at birth Indira Priyadarshini. Her charm, intelligence and charisma made her a powerful statesperson, much loved and admired by her people.
Indira Gandhi, born on this date 19 nov 1917,, in Allahabad, she grew up in an intensely political atmosphere. Her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, was a pivotal figure in the Indian independence movement and the first Prime Minister of Independent India. she studied in India and at the University of Oxford. Returning to India from Oxford in 1941, In 1942 she married Feroze Gandhi. She became involved in the Indian Independence movement.
After her father's death in 1964, she was appointed as a member of the Rajya Sabha by the President of India and became a member of Lal Bahadur Shastri's cabinet as Minister of Information and Broadcasting. The then Congress Party President K. Kamaraj was instrumental in making Indira Gandhi the Prime Minister after the sudden demise of Shastri. She introduced more left-wing economic policies and promoted agricultural productivity.
Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984. Her son, Rajiv Gandhi, succeeded her as Prime Minister, only to meet a similar fate in 1991, when he was assassinated by Tamil separatists.
Vasundhara Raje Scindia
Vasundhara Raje was born on March 8, 1953 in Mumbai. She is daughter of Rajmata Vijayraje Scindia and Jivaji Rao Scindia of Gwalior.She married former Maharajah of Dholpur, Hemant Singh, on 17 November 1972.She entered the politcs in 1984. She held a variety of posts in the BJP and was elected to the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly in 1985.She is the BJP’s face in Rajasthan, though she comes from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh.She is the first women Chief Minister of Rajasthan.
From 1989 onwards she won four consecutive elections to the Lok Sabha from Jhalawar, Rajasthan. She held a variety of posts in the Vajpayee cabinets, the most prominent being the Minister of State for External Affairs.
In 2003, she shot to prominence by leading the BJP to its biggest victory in the state elections in Rajasthan, where she represents the Jhalrapatan seat. Her son Dushyant Singh was elected to the Lok Sabha from her former constituency.
In 2007, she was awarded “Women Together Award”, by the UNO, for efforts to assist women in self-empowerment.
In 2008, her government is facing a tough challenge in handling the 2008 caste violence in Rajasthan.
Sonia Gandhi
Sonia Gandhi was born in Edvige Antonia Albina Mainoon in Italy on 9 December 1946.She is an Indian politician, the President of the Indian National Congress Party(NCP). She married Rajeev in 1969. She is widow of former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi who is the son of the former PM of India,Indira Gandhi.She is the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party. She was named the third most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine in 2004 and currently she ranks 6th in the world. In 1984,she actively compaigned against her sister in law Menaka Gandhi who was running against Rajeev in Amethi.
Sonia joined the Congress Party as a primary member in the Calcutta Plenary Session in 1997 and became party leader in 1998.
Within 62 days of her joining she became the party president – a record for any Indian politician.
In 1999 she contested Loksabha elections from Bellary, Karnataka and Amethi, Uttar Pradesh . She won both the seats. In Bellary she defeated BJP leader, Sushma Swaraj. In 2004, she was elected to the Lok Sabha from Rai Bareli, UP.She was elected the Leader of Opposition in 1999.
Sushma Swaraj
Sushma swaraj was born on february 14,1952 in Ambala Cantt. in Haryana. She took education at S.D. College, Ambala Cantt. Haryana and got a B.A. degree. She completed LL.B. from the Law Department of Panjab University, Chandigarh. She married Swaraj Kaushal on July 13, 1975 and has one daughter. She is a lawyer by profession. She began her political career as a student leader in the 1970s, organizing protests against Indira Gandhi’s government.
She was elected as a member of Rajya Sabha in 1990. she was the first woman Chief Minister of Delhi. In 1999, she took on a high profile as she contested against , Sonia Gandhi,who is the Congress party’s President, and she was defeated by Sonia Gandhi.
She returned to Parliament in April 2000 as a Rajya Sabha member from Uttarakhand. She was Minister of Information and Broadcasting, from September 2000 to January 2003.When Congress won the elections Sushma Swaraj threatened to shave her head, wear a white saree and eat groundnuts, if Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born Congress leader, became Prime Minister.She was re-elected to the the Rajya Sabha in April 2006.She was president of Hindu Sahitya Sammelan for Four years.
Uma Bharti
Uma Bharti was born on May 3,1959 in Tikamgarh district in Madhya Pradesh in India. At a very young age she became involved with Bhartiya Janata Party.She contested her first parliamentary elections in 1984 and was defeated.She successfully contested the Khajuraho seat and retained it in elections conducted in 1991,1996,1998 and 1999.In the Vajpayee’s Administration, she held various state-level portfolios of Human Resource Development, Tourism, Youth Affairs & Sports, and finally Coal & Mines.
In the year 2003 Assembly polls, she led BJP to a three fourths majority in Madhya Pradesh. She defeated her Congress opponent from the Malehra seat with a 25% margin.
Uma Bharati resigned from the post of CM in August 2004, on the issue of the right to hoist the National Flag, when a decade old case against her was resurrected.In November 2004,she was suspended from the Bhartiya Janata Party.But in May 2005 she was brought back into national executive.But that was short lived.She formed the BJSP(Bhartiya Janashakti Party) which lost the by-election for her assembly seat of Bada Malhera.BJSP has also experienced defeats in all Lok Sabha bypolls which the party has contested.The BJP candidate for Gwalior was the daughter of her mentor, the late Vijayaraje Scindia. In another major turn of events, Uma agreed to withdraw her candidates to the 2007 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections at the request of Ashok Singhal,who is a’Vishwa Hindu Parishad chief’.
J.Jayalalitha
J.Jayalalitha was born on February 24,1948. She is the former Chief Minister and the current leader of the opposition of the Govt. of Tamil Nadu. She is popularly called Amma by her followers.She was popoular film star in Tamil Film industry before her entry in the politics.
She was educated at Bishop Cotton Girls High School at Banglore and later she moved to the Madras Presidency along with her mother Sandhya.In 1981 she joined AIADMK and she was nominated for the Rajya Sabha in 1988.With the help of M.G.Ramchandran who is also an actor Jayalalitha entered in the politics.In 1989 she won the elections to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly becoming the first woman to be elected as the Leader of the opposition.
In 1991 she was re-elected to the legislative assembly and became the first elected woman Chief Minister of the Tamil Nadu.However due to anti-incumbency wave she lost the power to the DMK in 1996 in a landslide defeat.She returned to the power with the huge majority in 2001 elections.In 2006 elections her party lost the power to the DMK government.
In her latest speech she quoted that in future her party will rule India and would return to power in Tamil Nadu.
Mehmooba Mufti
Mehmooba Mufti was born on May 22,1959 at Anantnag district in Jammu and Kashmir.She is the daughter of the former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mufti Mohmmad Sayeed.She is the president of the Jammu and Kashmir people Democratic party.She completed her law from the University of Kashmir.
When elections for the state assembly were held in 1996 ,she was elected from the Bijbehara on an National Congress Party ticket.She then became the leader of the opposition. She is one of the few woman politicians of Jammu and Kashmir who is recognised all over the India.
In 1999 she split from Indian National Congress party to form Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party and became the vice president of the party.She was elected to the Lok-Sabha in 2004 and is the prominent member of the ruling Congress-Party led coalition.
Undoubtly ,she is Kashmir’s well known woman politician.
Brinda Karat
Brinda Karat She was born on 17 october 1947,in calcutta at West Bengal.In 2005 she became the first women member of the Communist Party of India(Marxist).From 1993 to 2004 she was he General Secretary of All India Democratic Women’s Association and thereafter the vice-president.She was educated at elite Welham Girls School at Dehradun and in 1971 she took the Master’s degree in History from the University of Calcutta.
In 1967, she left for London where she worked with Air India at a Bond Street for four years.In 1971, she decided to leave her job and return to Calcutta. she joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI (M) in 1971, under the guidance of B.T. Ranadive.In 1975, she shifted to Delhi and started working as a trade union organiser with textile mill workers in North Delhi. Brinda grew to be active with worker’s movements and the Indian women’s movements .
On April 11, 2005, Karat was elected to the Indian Parliament, Rajya Sabha as a CPI(M) member, for West Bengal.In 2005, only after the inclusion of 5 women members to the Central Committee did Brinda Karat agree to be nominated to the exclusive 17 member Politburo. The Politburo is the highest decision-making body of the party and Brinda Karat is its first woman member.
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