Mind-blowing facts about former Lok Sabha speaker and unbeaten MP “Sumitra Mahajan (Tai)”

Second woman of the country (first from the state) Lok Sabha speaker, Sumitra Mahajan has been one of the senior-most members of the Indian Parliament. She is popularly known as Tai. She is the only woman in the country who won the Lok Sabha election for 8 consecutive times. She became the second woman after Meira Kumar to be elected as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.

Being undefeated since 1989, Tai won from the Indore Lok Sabha constituency 8 times. Belonging to BJP, she was also the Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 2014 to 2019. Sumitra Mahajan won the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Indore with a margin of more than four lakh votes.

Personal Introduction:

Smt Sumitra Mahajan was born on 12 April 1943 to Smt Usha and Purushottam Sathe in Chiplun, Maharashtra. He got married to Jayant Mahajan, a resident of Indore on 29 January 1965. Mahajan did MA and LLB from Indore University  (now Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya). Her hobbies are reading, music, drama, and cinema as well as enthusiasm for singing. She has two sons.

Political career:

Tai has been the deputy mayor of Indore Municipal Corporation.

Sumitra Mahajan participated in the general election of 1989 for the first time and defeated former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Prakash Chandra Sethi. Before this, Mahajan had contested Madhya Pradesh Assembly Election from Indore Assembly three times but received defeat. 

Mrs. Mahajan represented Indore in the Lok Sabha from 1989 to 2019 being an MP from Indore Lok Sabha seat. During this time, Tai contested 8 Lok Sabha elections but never got defeated. 

(Photo: Times of India)

Tai is the first woman in the country to be elected as a Member of Parliament for 8 consecutive terms, that too from the same constituency.

From 2002 to 2004, she was handed over the responsibility of important ministries like Human Resources, Communications, and Petroleum under the Atal Bihari

ji’s government.

In the year 2014, she was elected as a speaker in the lower house. Hence, she became the second woman after Meira Kumar to be elected as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. 

Apart from these, Tai has held various posts throughout her career. She has also landed herself in controversy a couple of times because of her comments on various issues. She is not only an example of simplicity but the pride of the country. She will be remembered by the generation forever. 

Writer, historian, and activist Dharam Sikarwar is a very active author The Youth. He writes on national and international issues, environment, politics. He is an avid book reader as well.