Lalitha Kumaramangalam

Lalitha Kumaramangalam Biography

Lalitha Kumaramangalam is an Indian politician and social worker from the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. She is currently a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party and former chairperson of the National Commission for Women. She has earlier served as the National Secretary of the party. She is the daughter of well-known communist leader Mohan Kumaramangalam, and her brother Rangarajan Kumaramangalam was also a well-known politician and parliamentarian associated with both Indian National Congress and later the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Lalitha Kumaramangalam was born January 14, 1958 into a politically influential family of Tamil Nadu. Her family members practised different types of political ideologies. While her father Mohan Kumaramangalam was a communist, Lalitha and her brother Rangarajan Kumaramangalam closely worked with Bharatiya Janata Party. Her paternal grandfather, P. Subbarayan, was the Chief Minister of the Madras Presidency. Her paternal uncle, General P.P. Kumaramangalam was Chief of the Army Staff.

While her father belonged to a political family of Tamil Nadu, her mother Kalyani Mukherjee belonged to a political family of West Bengal. Lalitha is the grand-niece of former Chief Minister of West Bengal, Ajoy Mukherjee and well-known politician and parliamentarian Geeta Mukherjee. Lalitha Kumaramangalam completed her graduation in economics from the famous St. Stephen's College, Delhi. She later completed MBA from Madras University.

She got into active politics in the mid-2000s after the death of her brother Rangarajan Kumaramangalam. Though she contested Lok Sabha elections twice in 2004 and 2009 representing Bharatiya Janata Party, she couldn’t win a seat. She is also a social worker who runs an NGO named Prakriti. In 2014 she was appointed as Chairperson of the National Commission for Women.

Published: January 07, 2019

Updated: January 07, 2019