Pratima Bhoumik

Pratima Bhoumik Biography

Pratima Bhoumik is an Indian politician from the state of Tripura, affiliated to Bharatiya Janata Party. She currently serves as a parliamentarian in the 17th Lok Sabha headed by Narendra Modi and represents West Tripura constituency. She is a member of BJP since 1991 and is popularly known as Didi among the masses. In 2016 she was chosen as State General Secretary by CM Biplab Kumar Deb, and was given a seat for 2019 elections from West Tripura. She became a parliamentarian just before she celebrated her 50^th birthday.

Pratima Bhoumik was born on 28 May 1969 in Baranarayan, Tripura. Her father’s name is Debendra Kumar Bhoumik. She graduated in Bio-Science from Women College, Agartala, under Tripura University in 1991. She was serving as General Secretary of the BJP’s state when her name was chosen as BJP candidate for West Tripura constituency, and after the win she became an MP for the first time. She secured 5,73,532 votes which is 51.77 per cent of the valid votes polled, defeating her Congress rival Subal Bhowmik by a margin of 3,05,689 votes. She is only the second Lok Sabha member from Tripura after Congress' Maharani Bibhu Kumari Devi, also former Tripura minister, who won it long back in 1991.

Soon after becoming a parliamentarian in 2019, she donated her first MP salary of 1 lakh rupees to Assam flood relief. She currently serves as a Member of Standing Committee on Food in Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution and also Committee on Absence of Members from the Sittings of the House. She was one among the three women candidates from North-East who successfully contested general elections in 2019. The other two are Queen Oja and Agatha Sangma. In 2014 elections, only two women from North-East joined Lok Sabha.

Published: January 05, 2020

Updated: January 05, 2020