A Welcome Change: 7 Women MPs in Modi's Council of Ministers

Maneka Gandhi: Animal-rights activist and environmentalist, Maneka Gandhi made a comeback to the union cabinet as the Minister of Women and Child Development. She is the only member of the Gandhi family in the BJP-led government.
The seven-time MP and younger daughter-in-law of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Maneka Sanjay Gandhi was also in the council of ministers during the previous NDA government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the first Animal Welfare Minister of the country.

In just-concluded Lok Sabha election, Maneka won from the Pilibhit constituency by a margin of over 3 lakh votes. Gandhi joined active politics after the death of her husband Sanjay Gandhi in an air crash in 1980 and floated her own political outfit in March 1983 after she fell-out with her mother-in-law. Though Maneka Gandhi was part of the NDA government under Vajpayee, she joined BJP officially only in 2004.

Harsimrat Kaur Badal: The Akali Dal MP from Bathinda, Minister of Food Processing (48), Harsimrat Kaur Badal is the only woman from an ally to be sworn-in as a cabinet minister. She has emerged as a powerful leader of Punjab's ruling Shiromani Akali Dal in the last five years after she was first elected MP in 2009.
Wife of Punjab's powerful Deputy Chief Minister and Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal and daughter-in-law of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Harsimrat have tried to carve her own space in politics and social work. She has been vociferous in Lok Sabha debates since 2009. Before winning the Bathinda seat in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls when she defeated former chief minister Amarinder Singh's son Raninder Singh by 1.2 lakh votes, she had led a quiet family life with her three children in New Delhi.

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