Basavarajeshwari Jahagirdar was an Indian politician and 3 time

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP), represented the Bellary Lok Sabha constituency in

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

, lower house of the

Indian Parliament The Parliament of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of the ...

. She also served as Minister of State for Women and Child Development of India, from 1991 to 1996.

Early life and background

Basava Rajeswari was born in 1928 at Raidurga,

Anantapur District Anantapur district officially: Anantapuramu district is one of the eight districts in the Rayalaseema region of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The district headquarters is located at Anantapur city. It is one of the driest places in So ...

(

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

). She completed her education at Government Girls High School in Bellary (Karnataka).

Personal life

Basava Rajeswari married Shri Sarana Basavaraj on 22 May 1948 and the couple has four sons and four daughters.

Positions held

* Member of

All India Congress Committee The All India Congress Committee (AICC) is the presidium or the central decision-making assembly of the Indian National Congress. It is composed of members elected from state-level Pradesh Congress Committees and can have as many as a thousan ...

(AICC) for two terms. * Secretary of District Congress Committee, Raichur.

Political career

Ms. Basavarajeshwari, whose political career lasted 40 years, was the Union Minister of State for Women and Child Development in the P.V. Narasimha Rao Ministry. She also served as a Deputy Minister between 1962 and 1967 and was a member of the

Karnataka Legislative Council The Karnataka Legislative Council is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of Karnataka state in South Western India. Karnataka is one of the six states in India, where the state legislature is bicameral, comprising two houses: the Leg ...

for one term. She won the Bellary Lok Sabha seat three times in a row. She began her career as a Member of the Legislative Assembly in 1957 from Lingasugur in Raichur district, and was re-elected for the second term when she held the post of Deputy Minister for five years. She was later elected as the Member of the Legislative Council (1977–84). She won the Bellary Lok Sabha seat thrice in 1984, 1989 and 1991 and was inducted into the P.V. Narasimha Rao Ministry P.V. Narasimha Rao Ministry. As the Union Minister, Ms. Basavarajeshwari represented the country at the World Women's Conference held at Beijing in China. She kept a low profile after she was denied the Congress ticket to contest in the Lok Sabha elections from Bellary in 1996 and floated a trust, for which she was the chairperson. It started several educational institutions, including an engineering college, schools, a polytechnic and an ITI. In 2004, Ms. Basavarajeshwari joined the

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

and campaigned for the party not only in Bellary but also in the neighbouring districts.Congress leaders made me quit: Basavarajeshwari
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References

1920s births 2008 deaths India MPs 1984–1989 India MPs 1989–1991 India MPs 1991–1996 Lok Sabha members from Karnataka People from Bellary district Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Karnataka Indian National Congress politicians from Karnataka Mysore MLAs 1957–1962 Mysore MLAs 1962–1967 Mysore MLAs 1967–1972 Mysore MLAs 1972–1977 Members of the Mysore Legislature Members of the Karnataka Legislative Council {{Karnataka-INC-politician-stub