Meira Kumar facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Meira Kumar
15th Speaker of the Lok Sabha
In office 4 Jun 2009 – 18 May 2014
President	Pratibha Patil Pranab Mukherjee
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Deputy Speaker	Kariya Munda
Leader of the House	Pranab Mukherjee Sushilkumar Shinde
Preceded by	Somnath Chatterjee
Succeeded by	Sumitra Mahajan
Minister of Water Resources
In office 22 May 2009 – 25 May 2009
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Preceded by	Saifuddin Soz
Succeeded by	Pawan Kumar Bansal
Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment
In office 22 May 2004 – 22 May 2009
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Preceded by	Satyanarayan Jatiya
Succeeded by	Selja Kumari
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
In office 2004–2014
Preceded by	Muni Lall
Succeeded by	Chhedi Paswan
Constituency	Sasaram
In office 1996–1999
Preceded by	Kalka Dass
Succeeded by	Anita Arya
Constituency	Karol Bagh
In office 1985–1989
Preceded by	Chowdhary Girdhari Lal
Succeeded by	Mayawati
Constituency	Bijnor (by-poll)
Personal details
Born	(1945-03-31) 31 March 1945 (age 79) Arrah, Bihar, British India (present day Arrah, Bihar, India)
Political party	Indian National Congress
Other political affiliations	United Progressive Alliance
Spouse	Manjul Kumar ​ (m. 1968)​
Relations	Sumitra Devi (mother-in-law)
Children	3 (1 son and 2 daughters)
Parent	Jagjivan Ram (father) Indrani Devi (mother)
Alma mater	Faculty of Law, University of Delhi

Meira Kumar (born 31 March 1945) is an Indian politician and former diplomat. A member of the Indian National Congress, she was the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment from 2004 to 2009, the Minister of Water Resources for a brief period in 2009. She served as the 15th Speaker of Lok Sabha from 2009 to 2014, being the first woman to hold the post. Kumar became just the second woman to be nominated for president of India by a major political block when she secured the United Progressive Alliance's nomination in 2017.

Prior to being a member of the 15th Lok Sabha, Kumar had been elected earlier to the 8th, 11th, 12th and 14th Lok Sabha. Kumar was the joint presidential candidate by the leading opposition parties for 2017 presidential election and lost the election to the NDA nominee Ram Nath Kovind. Meira Kumar's vote share is the third highest for a losing candidate, that of Neelam Sanjiva Reddy in the 1969 Presidential elections and K. Subba Rao in 1967 Presidential elections.

Early life

Meira Kumar was born on 31 March 1945, in Bhojpur district, Bihar of the British India (present day Bihar, India) to Jagjivan Ram, an Depressed Class leader and former Deputy Prime Minister and Indrani Devi, a prominent leader of the Indian freedom struggle. Growing up, Kumar shared a close relationship with her mother, with whom she spent most of her time. She has described her as the biggest influence from her childhood.

Kumar attended the Welham Girls School, Dehradun and Maharani Gayatri Devi Girls' Public School in Jaipur. She studied at Banasthali Vidyapith for a short duration. She completed her Master's degree and Bachelors of Law from Indraprastha College and the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi respectively. She also received an honorary doctorate from Banasthali Vidyapith in 2010.

Kumar worked as a social worker during her youth, actively participating in movements supporting social reforms, human rights, and democratic ideas. She was appointed as the Chairperson of National Drought Relief Committee constituted by the Congress during 1967 famine in region of Bihar. As the head of the commission, Kumar launched a Family Adoption Scheme under which drought-affected families were provided support from volunteering households.

Career

Foreign Service

Kumar joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1973 and was posted as language trainee at the Embassy of India Spain. During this period, she obtained a diploma in Spanish. Later, she was posted at the High Commission of India,United Kingdom . After working as a diplomat for a decade, Kumar quit the Indian Foreign Services in 1985 and decided to enter politics after being encouraged by her father and the then Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi.

Political career

Kumar meeting Burmese leader Aung Suu Kyi in 2013.

Kumar entered electoral politics in 1985, when she received an Indian National Congress' nomination for the Lok Sabha from the Bijnor constituency bye-poll in Uttar Pradesh. She defeated, as a newcomer, two veteran dalit leaders including Ram Vilas Paswan of the Janata Dal and Mayawati of the Bahujan Samajwadi Party. Following her election to the Lok Sabha, Kumar was appointed as member of the Ministry of External Affairs' Consultative Committee in 1986.

Meera Kumar lost elections for 9th Lok Sabha (1989) and 10th Lok Sabha from Sasaram, but went on to win elections for the 11th (in 1996) and the 12th Lok Sabhas from Karol Bagh in Delhi. She lost her seat to the candidate from the Bhartiya Janata Party in 1999 election, but was able re-elected with a significant majority from her father's former constituency of Sasaram in Bihar in 2004 and 2009. In the 2014 general election and in 2019, Kumar contested from Sasaram and lost both times to her nemesis Chhedi Paswan who has defeated her in Sasaram four times.

Following the Congress party's win in the 2004 Indian general elections, Kumar served in the United Progressive Alliance's Government as the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment from 2004 to 2009, under the premiership of Manmohan Singh.

In 2009, the United Progressive Alliance returned to power after an improved performance in the general election and Kumar was, on May 22, 2009, briefly inducted as member of the centre's cabinet as the Minister for Water Resources.

However, she was later nominated for the position of the Speaker of Lok Sabha and she submitted her resignation three days after assuming ministerial office. Kumar was then elected as the first ever woman speaker of Lok Sabha and remained in office from 2009 to 2014.

2017 presidential election

Kumar secured the United Progressive Alliance's nomination for the 2017 Indian presidential election, becoming just the third woman to be nominated for president of India by a major political bloc, after Pratibha Patil. Although she received support from most of the major opposition parties for her election to the office, she went on to lose to the National Democratic Alliance nominee Ram Nath Kovind.

Kovind received a total of 2,930 votes (which included both Members of Parliament and Members of the Legislative Assemblies) amounting to electoral college votes of 702,044. He defeated Kumar, who received a total of 1,844 votes amounting to 367,314 votes in terms of electoral college.

Party (Alliance)	Candidate	Electoral Votes	Vote Percentage	States carried
BJP (NDA)	Ram Nath Kovind	702,044	65.65%	21
INC (UPA)	Meira Kumar	367,314	34.35%	10

National Legislators' Conference

• In September 2022, Meira Kumar was appointed as a key patron of NLC Bharat.

Lok Sabha electoral history

Meira Kumar has been elected 5 times as Lok Sabha MP.

See also

In Spanish: Meira Kumar para niños