Maneka Gandhi holding Varun Gandhi in her lap
Former Union Minister Maneka Gandhi is celebrating her 68th birthday today on 26 August. Whenever the members of the Gandhi family are mentioned in politics, Maneka Gandhi’s name comes before Sonia Gandhi. The reason for this is that Maneka Gandhi entered Indian politics before Sonia Gandhi. Maneka Gandhi, whom you know as a leader today, has also been a model and a journalist. She is in politics but the daughter-in-law of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is not carrying forward the legacy of the Gandhi family. Maneka Gandhi was born in a Sikh family in the capital New Delhi. Her father Tarlochan Singh Anand was an army officer. Maneka Gandhi did her early education from Lawrence School. She did her graduation from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi. Maneka also studied from JNU. During her college days, she participated in many fashion shows. After college, she was selected for modeling and then for the advertisement of Bombay Dyeing.
From fashion model to daughter-in-law of Gandhi family, such was the journey of Maneka
You all must know that Maneka’s husband’s name was Sanjay Gandhi. Indira Gandhi’s younger son. When Maneka was modeling, Sanjay Gandhi fell in love with her after seeing one of her photos. After this, both of them got engaged in July 1974. Just 2 months later, on 23 September 1974, both of them got married. A few years after Sanjay and Maneka’s marriage, the Congress party started faltering a bit.
Sanjay Gandhi emerged as a leader during the Emergency. After the defeat of Congress in the 1977 elections, Sanjay and Maneka Gandhi decided to bring Congress back to power. Maneka Gandhi started a political magazine called Surya. Congress came back to power in 1980. This victory was largely due to Sanjay Gandhi’s strategy and Maneka Gandhi’s magazine Surya.
When the conflict with Indira Gandhi increased
Sanjay Gandhi died in a plane crash in the same year. During this time, Rajiv Gandhi emerged as the big face of the Congress. It is said that Maneka Gandhi was very angry at this and her conflict with Indira Gandhi increased. At the age of just 23, Maneka Gandhi was thrown out of the house by her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi on suspicion of joining rallies organized by political rivals and gaining power.
Maneka was thrown out of the house without any luggage
Indira Gandhi returned to India from abroad on 28 March 1982. After this, a round of conversation started between mother-in-law Indira and daughter-in-law Maneka. The matter escalated so much during the questions and answers that Indira even asked Maneka to leave the house. On this, Maneka also said that she would not leave the house, but Indira Gandhi remained firm on her stand. Maneka Gandhi informed her sister about this. Indira asked Maneka to leave the house without any belongings. Maneka’s sister objected to this. Maneka’s sister said that this house also belongs to Sanjay Gandhi, in response to which Indira said that this house belongs to the Prime Minister. Then at around 11 pm, Maneka Gandhi left the house with her two-year-old son Varun Gandhi.
A party was formed in the name of Sanjay Gandhi
With the responsibility of Varun Gandhi, her life went through a lot of difficulties. After leaving her in-laws’ house, Maneka Gandhi started writing for books and magazines and slowly tried to establish herself. Then in the year 1983, Maneka formed the Rashtriya Sanjay Manch party in the name of Sanjay Gandhi. In the year 1984, Maneka Gandhi contested against Rajiv Gandhi from Amethi. But she was defeated badly in the election. In the year 1988, Maneka Gandhi merged her party with the Janata Dal. In 1989, with the support of Janata Dal, Maneka won her first Lok Sabha election and also became a Union Minister.
Contested election as an independent candidate from Pilibhit and won
In 1992, she started an organization called People for Animals. In 1988 and 1996, Maneka Gandhi contested elections as an independent from Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh and won them. In 1999, she supported the Bharatiya Janata Party as an independent and became the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment in the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In 2004, she joined the BJP along with her son Varun Gandhi. Maneka was a six-time MP from Pilibhit.
In the first term of the Modi government, Maneka Gandhi was given the responsibility of the Ministry of Child Development. She was not made a minister in the second term. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP fielded Maneka Gandhi from the Sultanpur seat. In this election, she had to face defeat by 40 thousand votes from Rambhual Nishad of the Samajwadi Party.
Maneka is known as a different leader because of her outspoken style
But even today Maneka Gandhi speaks strongly on women and environmental issues. If any inhumane treatment is seen with any animal in the country, Maneka Gandhi is the first to speak out. Because of her outspoken style, Maneka Gandhi is known as a different leader even while being in the BJP. (With IANS inputs)
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