Anju Bala (born 6 September 1979) is an Indian politician who has been a Member of Lok Sabha for the Misrikh constituency since the

2014 Indian general election General elections were held in India in nine phases from 7 April to 12 May 2014 to elect the members of the 16th Lok Sabha. With 834 million registered voters, they were the largest-ever elections in the world until being surpassed by the 2019 ...

. Bala entered active politics in 2010 and was elected the '' Block Pramukh'' (president) of Mallawan. Three years later, she joined 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. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

and was elected to the Lok Sabha the following year. She is a postgraduate in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

and

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

. Her husband Krishna Kumar Singh is a former legislator in the

Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly, also known as Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha, is the lower house of Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of the Indian state Uttar Pradesh. There are 403 seats in the house. Member of the Legislative Assembl ...

. In February 2022 she was expelled from

Early life

Anju Bala was born on 6 September 1979 at Kathua, Jammu Kashmir to Ravinder Nath and Trishala Devi, both of whom belong to the

Chamar Chamar (or Jatav) is a community classified as a Scheduled Caste under modern India's Reservation in India, system of affirmative action that originated from the group of trade persons who were involved in leather tanning and shoemaking. They a ...

caste. She completed her

postgraduate education Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of Academic degree, academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by higher education, post-secondary students who have ...

in Sanskrit at the

University of Jammu The University of Jammu informally known as Jammu University (JU), accredited as A++ grade by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), was established in 1969 by an act of the state legislature which effectively split the Jammu and ...

in 2007. Three years later, she graduated from Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University with a degree in Hindi.

Political career

Bala participated in

youth politics Youth politics is a category of issues which distinctly involve, affect or otherwise impact youth. It encompasses youth policy that specifically has an impact on young people (for example, education, housing, employment, leisure) and how young peo ...

during her college life. In 2010, she was elected as ''block pramukh'' (president) of Mallawan. She said her husband persuaded her to contest the ''block pramukh'' and parliamentary elections. In 2013, Bala joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. In the

, she contested Misrikh constituency and defeated her nearest rival Ashok Kumar Rawat of the

Bahujan Samaj Party The Bahujan Samaj Party ( BSP) is a 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), along with Religious ...

by a margin of 87,363 votes. Upon being elected, she said her first priorities as an MP were making herself available to the residents of her constituency, constructing new roads and ensuring a continuous supply of electricity. On 26 February 2018, Bala adopted Tejipur village under a rural development program called Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana. She had previously adopted Sihordwar Shikoh and Islam Nagar villages. During Bala's tenure as an MP, she used 90.21% of that was released under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme fund. On 22 March 2019, the party did not renominate her for the upcoming

2019 Indian general election General elections were held in India in seven phases from 11 April to 19 May 2019 to elect the members of the 17th Lok Sabha. Votes were counted and the result was declared on 23 May. Around 912 million people were eligible to vote, and vote ...

. In February 2022 she was expelled from

Views

Bala believes violence against cows could be curbed by making them the national animal of India and in August 2017, she demanded this course of action in Lok Sabha. She is of the opinion that inflation can be controlled by regulating the prices of petroleum products. She also believes the promotion of agriculture will help create jobs, that education reduces poverty and that bringing youth into politics could help a new style of political thinking to emerge. Bala has supported banknote demonetisation because she thinks it would help authorities locate

black money A black market is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality, or is not compliant with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the set of goods and services whose production and distributi ...

in India.

Personal life

Bala married Krishna Kumar Singh of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

on 26 January 2008. Singh represented Mallawan constituency in the

from 2002 to 2012 as a member of Bahujan Samaj Party. They have two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bala, Anju Women in Uttar Pradesh politics India MPs 2014–2019 Living people Lok Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh People from Hardoi district People from Kathua district 1979 births Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Uttar Pradesh 21st-century Indian women politicians University of Jammu alumni