New Delhi, June 22: A diplomat-turned-politician and Congress’ Dalit face, Opposition’s Presidential candidate Meira Kumar had a steady rise in echelons of power since she made her electoral debut in the mid-eighties.
Daughter of former deputy prime minister late Jagjivan Ram, Kumar, 72, was also the first woman to occupy the high office of the Lok Sabha Speaker between 2009 and 2014 during the UPA-II rule.
The career of Kumar, who is soft-spoken, in the rough and tumble of politics began when she quit her cushy Indian Foreign Service(IFS) job and decided to fight the Lok Sabha polls in 1985, a year before her father’s death.
She was elected to Lok Sabha for the first time from Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh in 1985, defeating top dalit leaders Mayawati and Ram Vilas Paswan. From being a foreign service officer to a five-term MP and then a Cabinet minister, Kumar has traversed a long way and a varied course that came in handy to her in running the Lok Sabha that often throws itself into scenes of tumult. She holds an MA and LLB degrees alongwith an advanced diploma in Spanish. Kumar became an MP for the second time in 1996 and again in 1998 from Delhi’s Karol Bagh constituency but lost her seat in 1999 when NDA returned to power. She was re-elected in 2004 with a huge margin from Sasaram in Bihar, the constituency of her father, and became an MP for the fifth time in 2009.
In between, she had quit Congress for two years from 2000 citing differences with the party leadership. She rejoined the party in 2002. In UPA’s first term, she was inducted into the Union Cabinet. She handled the Social Justice and Empowerment and Water Resources portfolios. Subsequently, after UPA’s return to power in 2009, she was elected unupposed as the first woman speaker of the Lok Sabha, where she became popular for her polite interventions, the most popular of them being “baith jaiye” (please have your seat). Kumar described her appointment as the Lok Sabha Speaker as a “historic moment” in India’s politics. She held the post from 2009 to 2014. Armed with a degree in law and a masters in English, she joined the IFS in 1973 and served in the embassies in Spain, the UK and Mauritius. She also served as a member of the India-Mauritius Joint Commission.
Kovind gets a new address
New Delhi:Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma’s residence in Akbar Road will be the new temporary address of BJP’s presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind. Kovind will be staying at the expansive 10 Akbar Road bungalow in the heart of Lutyens Delhi for about a month till the presidential election July 17, top sources said. The 71-year-old, who looks certain to be the next president, had earlier been allocated 144 North Avenue as Bihar governor. After his resignation as governor, top authorities in the Centre decided he should move to a bigger bungalow for security reasons, the sources added. PTI
