1) Sonia Gandhi  In 1964, Sonia Gandhi went to study English at The Bell Educational Trust's language school in the city of Cambridge. While enrolled in this certificate course she met Rajiv Gandhi, who was enrolled at the time in Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. Sonia and Rajiv were married in 1969, after which she moved into the house of her mother-in-law and then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. The couple had two children, Rahul Gandhi (born 1970) and Priyanka Gandhi (born 1972). Despite the family's heavy involvement in politics (her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi, daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, was Prime Minister), Sonia and Rajiv avoided all involvement - Rajiv worked as an airline pilot, and Sonia took care of her family. When Indira was ousted from office in 1977 and when Rajiv entered politics in 1982, Sonia continued to focus on her family and avoided all contact with public. She acquired Indian citizenship in 1983 after 14 years of her marriage. She relinquished the prime minister's post in favour of incumbent Manmohan Singh, but she is continuing to be the power behind the throne. She was named the third most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine in the year 2004 and currently ranks 6th . She was also named among the Time 100 most influential people in the world for the years 2007 and 2008. She was returned to Parliament by a margin of over 400,000 votes in the by-election for Rae Bareilly after the office of profit controversy. |
2) Pratibha Patil  (born December 19, 1934) is the current President of India, the 12th person and first woman to hold the office. She was sworn in as President of India on July 25, 2007, succeeding Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.Patil, a member of the Indian National Congress (INC), was nominated by the ruling United Progressive Alliance and Indian Left. She won the presidential election held on July 19, 2007 defeating her nearest rival Bhairon Singh Shekhawat by over 300,000 votes.Patil represented Edlabad constituency in Jalgaon District, Maharashtra as a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly (1962-1985), and was deputy chairwoman of the Rajya Sabha (1986-1988), Member of Parliament from Amravati in the Lok Sabha (1991-1996), and the 24th, and the first woman Governor of Rajasthan (2004-2007). |
3) Mayawati  The late Kanshi Ram may have been the soul of the Bahujan Samaj Party but it was Mayawati, his chosen heiress, who was its face. (born January 15, 1956) is a Indian politician and the current Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. She has been the Chief Minister on three other short-lived tenures but her party holds the absolute majority in the state on this occasion.Kumari Mayawati was born in Delhi. Her father Prabhu Das was a clerk in the telecommunications department in Delhi. Her mother is Ram Rati. She graduated from Kalindi College in Delhi and holds a Bachelor of Education degree, and was a teacher in Delhi (Inderpuri JJ Colony) until joining full time politics in 1984. At one point she also studied for the Indian Administrative Service examinations. However, after meeting Kanshi Ram in 1977, she gradually came under his patronage, and was part of his core team when he founded the BSP in 1984.In 1984, Kanshi Ram founded the BSP as a party to represent the Dalits, and Mayawati was one of the key people in the new organization. In 2001, Kanshi Ram named her as his successor. |
4) Sheila Dikhshit  In a party where obeisance to the high command ranks higher than individual merit, she is different. Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit is different in other respects too. She is no-nonsense, believes in speaking her mind, and goes ahead with what needs to be done -- armed with a court order, true -- political fallout be damned. It is thanks to her government that CNG became the norm for heavy vehicles in the capital -- leading to a fall in pollution levels -- the Delhi Metro became a reality, and the hugely unpopular (among traders) anti-sealing drive has taken off. Her father-in-law was the Congress veteran Uma Shankar Dixit and she sure has come a long way. |
5)Vasundhara Raje Scindia  She is the BJP's face in Rajasthan, though she comes from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh. Daughter of the late Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia and sister of the late Madhavrao Scindia, the former minister of state for external affairs in the A B Vajpayee government is Rajasthan's first woman chief minister. Her swearing-in in 2003 was on the lawns of the state assembly, a subtle gesture to leave behind the pageantry of her past. As the voters experiment with the new-found weapon of anti-incumbency, it is anyone's bet if Rajasthan will be any different. But with almost two years to go for elections, the princess turned commoner may be in with a chance. |
6) Sushma Swaraj  Everyone agrees that Sushma Swaraj will make for a fine BJP president; everyone it seems barring the BJP's own kingmakers. Are they afraid to trust a woman at the helm? Or, is the lady who ranks eighth in the hierarchy as represented by the national executive too vocal for her own good? She has been there done that, been a Union minister, been Delhi chief minister. |
7) Mamta Banarjee  Last year she was considered a washout, her bark deadlier than her bite. Her Trinamul Congress had been worsted in the Bengal assembly election, the Marxist bandwagon brooking no opposition, and yet this year she is back on our front pages and television screens, forcing Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya on the backfoot over the Singur land allocation to the Tatas. Makes one wonder, can anything keep this lady down? A street-fighter to the core, her importance is that she transcends electoral reverses. She continues to occupy the opposition space in Bengal, and it is the Congress that is wooing her back. |
8) Brinda Karat  She is the wife of CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat and NDTV Chairman Prannoy Roy's sister-in-law. She hogged headlines recently over her famous tiff with yoga guru Baba Ramdev, but that's irrelevant. Instead Brinda Karat would rather be known for ensuring that women have found their due in the stodgy Communist Party of India-Marxist, having resigned from the party's central committee once because she felt that women were not given due representation. In 2005, only after five women were nominated to the central committee did Brinda agree to be included in the 17-member Politburo, the first woman to make it to the CPI-M's highest decision-making body. More power to her, we say. |
9) Mehbooba Mufti  She was the architect of the Congress-People's Democratic Party tieup in Jammu and Kashmir that saw the alliance come to power in 2002, after having overseen her party's electoral campaign, and being a tough counterpoint to National Conference youthful Omar Abdullah against who she had lost the 1999 Lok Sabha election. Yet, she stood aside for her father Mufti Mohammed Sayeed to assume the chief ministership for three years under a power-sharing arrangement with the Congress party. As the PDP vice-president, it is she, a single parent of two daughters, who is in charge of the organisational nuts and bolts. Naturally, she is Kashmir's bestknown woman politician. |
10) Uma bharti  She was the stormy petrel of the Bharatiya Janata Party, but the party may realise that having Uma on the inside is better than outside. Her career is one of upswings and downfalls. From being sports minister in the Vajpayee ministry, she was handpicked to lead the BJP's charge in the 2003 Madhya Pradesh assembly election, in which she secured a two-thirds majority for the party. Her fall from grace began when she quit in August 2004; her criticism of BJP leaders earned her a suspension from the party, but in May 2005 she was brought back into the national executive. But that was short-lived. Her temper tantrum at a party meeting in full glare of television cameras led to her expulsion. She has since floated the Bharatiya Janshakti Party, which came a-cropper in the recent Uttarakhand assembly election. But observers say Uma Bharti cannot be wished away and will make her worth to the BJP known in the next Madhya Pradesh election. |
Some Other important woman politicians Jayalalithaa She lost the 2006 assembly election, yes, but all signs are that Jayalalithaa has put the past behind her. And, some say, Tamil Nadu as well. She is keen on a return to the national stage -- after a not-so impressive performance there in 1998-1999 when she brought down Atal Bihari Vajpayee's 13-month-old government after a tea-party with Sonia Gandhi -- and is keenly watching the emergence of the Third Front. She has also brushed up extensively on the India-US nuclear deal, to which she is opposed. |
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