Baby Rani Maurya (born 15 August 1956) is an Indian politician, currently serving as a minister in the

Government of Uttar Pradesh The Government of Uttar Pradesh (ISO: Uttar Pradesh Sarkār; often abbreviated as GoUP) is the subnational government of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh with the governor as its appointed constitutional head of the state by the President ...

since March 2022. She served as seventh

governor of Uttarakhand The governor of Uttarakhand is appointed by the president of India for a term of five years, and holds office at the president's pleasure. The governor is ''de jure'' head of the state government; all its executive actions are taken in the gov ...

from 26 August 2018 till September 2021, when she resigned two years before completing her term.

Early life

Maurya was born on 15 August 1956. She has

Bachelor of Education A Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) is an undergraduate professional degree which prepares students for work as a teacher in schools. In some countries such as Tanzania and Kenya, additional tasks like field work and research are required in order f ...

and Master of Arts degrees.

Career

Maurya became active in politics in the early 1990s, following her marriage to a bank officer, Pradeep Kumar Maurya, who now serves on the advisory board of the Punjab National Bank after retiring as its director. She began her political career as a worker of the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the List of ruling p ...

(BJP). In 1995 she contested the

Agra Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra ...

mayoral election on a BJP ticket, and won with a large mandate. She was the first woman to be mayor of Agra, and held the post until 2000. In 1997, Maurya was appointed an office bearer of the scheduled caste (SC) wing of the BJP.

Ram Nath Kovind Ram Nath Kovind (; born 1 October 1945) is an Indian politician who served as the 14th President of India from 2017 to 2022. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He is the second person after K. R. Narayanan, from the Dalit community ...

, who is now the

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murm ...

, was then the chairman of the SC wing. As office bearer of this wing she assumed responsibility for strengthening the BJP's reach among members of the

scheduled castes The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...

in Uttar Pradesh. In 2001, she was made a member of the Uttar Pradesh social welfare board. In recognition of her efforts toward the empowerment of

dalit Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and were seen as forming ...

women, in 2002 she was made a member of the

National Commission for Women The National Commission for Women (NCW) is the statutory body of the Government of India, generally concerned with advising the government on all policy matters affecting women. It was established on 31 January 1992 under the provisions of the I ...

. She served on the commission until 2005. The BJP nominated Maurya to contest the

Etmadpur Etmadpur is a town (tehsil) in Agra district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It is located eastward 19 km from Agra. It is 274 km far from state capital Lucknow. Demographics As of 2011 Indian Census, Etmadpur had a total popul ...

seat in the

2007 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election The 2007 Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly election was held during April–May 2007. It was held to elect a government for the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. Background With 166 million people, U.P. is about the size of France, Germany, an ...

; however, she narrowly lost to her

Bahujan Samaj Party The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is a national level political party in India that was formed to represent Bahujans (literally means "community in majority"), referring to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes (OBC), al ...

opponent, Narayan Singh Suman. From 2013 to 2015, she was engaged in the state-level responsibilities that were assigned to her by the BJP. In July 2018, she was made a member of the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights. On 21 August 2018, Maurya was appointed the seventh governor of Uttarakhand by the

Indian government The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

. She was sworn in on 26 August at a ceremony held at the

Raj Bhavan Raj Bhavan () is the common name of the official residences of the governors of the states of India and may refer to: List of Raj Bhavan See also *Raj Niwas * Rashtrapati Bhavan * Rashtrapati Nilayam *Rashtrapati Niwas The Rashtrapati Niw ...

in Uttarakhand, becoming only the second woman to be the governor of Uttarakhand:

Margaret Alva Margaret Nazareth Alva ( born 14 April 1942) is an Indian politician. Alva served as the 17th Governor of Goa, 23rd Governor of Gujarat, 20th Governor of Rajasthan and 4th Governor of Uttarakhand the until the end of her tenure in August 2014 ...

, appointed in 2009, was the first. She succeeded

Krishan Kant Paul Krishan Kant Paul (born 6 February 1948) is a former Indian Police Service officer, who served as the Commissioner of Police, Delhi from February 2004 to July 2007. Following his retirement from the IPS, he served as the Governor of several sta ...

, whose term had officially expired on 8 July, but who remained in office until 25 August due to the delay in appointing his replacement. She resigned in September 2021, two years before completing her term as governor. A few days later, she was appointed National Vice President of BJP, with assembly elections in her home state of UP due in a few months. She was elected to

Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly (Hindi: ''Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha'') is the lower house of the bicameral legislature of Uttar Pradesh. There are 403 seats in the house filled by direct election using a single-member first-past-the- ...

in 2022 election from Agra Rural constituency. She was appointed minister in the second Yogi Adityanath government in March 2022.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Maurya, Baby Rani 1956 births Living people 21st-century Indian politicians Governors of Uttarakhand People from Agra Women mayors of places in Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Uttar Pradesh Women state governors of India Uttar Pradesh MLAs 2022–2027 21st-century Indian women politicians