Meira Kumar

Meira Kumar is an Indian lawyer, diplomat, government official, and politician. She was born on 31 March 1945 in Patna, Bihar. Meira loves to read and is a big fan of classical music. Abhigyan Shakuntalam by Kalidas is her favorite book.

The famous politician is a fluent speaker of Spanish. In her youth, she was a good sportsperson. She won various awards for rifle shooting in tournaments. Meira's father, Jagjivan Ram was a prominent Dalit leader and former deputy Prime Minister.

Her mother, Indrani Devi was a resistance fighter and a social worker. After completing her BA and MA in English Literature from IPCW, she received her LLB from Miranda House, Delhi University. She later got married to an advocate, Manjul Kumar in 1968, and had three children.

In 1973, Meira joined the Indian Foreign Services, where she served for over a decade. During her tenure, she had postings in Spain, Mauritius, and the UK. The year 1985 brought a significant change in her life. Meira in 1985 entered electoral politics.

She ran in for a seat in Lok Sabha from a constituency in Uttar Pradesh. With the support of her father and the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, Meira got elected defeating two significant Dalit leaders of the time, Mayavati, and Ram Paswan. In 1991, she was chosen for the post of general secretary of the All India Congress Committee.

She served as the general secretary for a year and then got re-elected for the post in 1996. She then remained in the office till 1999. She later won the re-election of the Lok Sabha from a constituency in New Delhi, but soon lost from a BJP candidate.

In 2000, Meira left the Congress Party due to differences between the members. In 2004, she contested and won Lok Sabha seat from Sasaram, Bihar. In the same year, she was appointed as the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. In the later years, she was appointed as the Minister of Water Resources.

In 2009 she got appointed as the Lok Sabha speaker. Meira Kumar was the first ever woman to be elected as the speaker of the Lok Sabha. Being the Lok Sabha speaker for almost five years, she introduced various new policies.

In 2011, Meira Kumar recommended an initiative to reduce the use of paper in the Lok Sabha house. In the year 2017, she contested for the presidential election as the nominated member of the UPA but lost the election to Ram Nath Kovind In the year 2017, Ram Nath Kovind was elected as 1 >> Read More... , the NDA nominee. Despite losing the election, she received the highest ever votes to be received by any losing candidate.