Meira Kumar

Meira Kumar Biography

Meira Kumar is an Indian politician and parliamentarian belonging to Indian National Congress and currently serves as the Speaker of Lok Sabha. She is the first woman to be elected as the speaker of Lok Sabha and she was selected unanimously on 3 June 2009. She is the first woman dalit speaker too. She has been elected to parliament 5 times before and has been a diplomat and lawyer before becoming fully involved with politics. Earlier she served as the Cabinet Minister in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment during the period 2004-2009. She has defeated prominent dalit leaders, Ram Vilas Paswan and Mayawati from Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh.

Meira Kumar was born in Patna to the prominent dalit leader and freedom fighter, Babu Jagjivan Ram. This leader has also served as the Deputy Prime Minister. Her mother is also a freedom fighter. She is married to Manjul Kumar, a lawyer of Supreme Court and the couple has three children. After completing her Master’s in English, she took LLB from Delhi University. In 1970, she joined the Indian Foreign Service and has worked in many countries as a diplomat. She entered active politics in the year 1985 and was elected from Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh.

She became a Member of Parliament in the 11^th and 12^th Lok Sabha elections by contesting from Karol Bagh constituency of New Delhi. However she lost the seat in 1999. But she was re-elected with a record majority from Sasaram, which was her father’s favourite constituency. She was inducted into Manmohan Singh’s cabinet in 2004 and was given the portfolio Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. Now she serves as the speaker of Lok Sabha since 2009.

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Updated: May 06, 2014