Renuka Chowdhury (born 13 August 1954) is an Indian politician and a member of the

Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

representing

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

. she represented the political party in the

from

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

and currently in

Telangana Telangana is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated in the Southern India, south-central part of the Indian subcontinent on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, ele ...

. She has also served as the Union minister of State (Independent Charge) for

Ministry of Women and Child Development The Ministry of Women and Child Development, a branch of the Government of India, is the apex body responsible for the formulation and administration of the rules, regulations, and laws relating to Women in India, women and Children in India, c ...

and

Tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

in the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

Early life

Born to Air Commodore Suryanarayana Rao and Vasundhara on 13 August 1954 in

Vishakhapatnam Visakhapatnam (; formerly known as Vizagapatam, and also referred to as Vizag, Visakha, and Waltair) is the largest and most populous metropolitan city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is between the Eastern Ghats and the coast of t ...

(Andhra Pradesh). Renuka is the eldest of three daughters. She studied at the

Welham Girls' School Welham Girls' School is a private boarding school for girls located in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India. History The school was founded by Hersilia Susie Oliphant, who had previously set up Welham Boys' School. She named the schools after her ...

Dehradun Dehradun (), also known as Dehra Doon, is the winter capital and the List of cities in Uttarakhand by population, most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous Dehradun district, d ...

and received her B.A

Career

Chowdhury entered politics in 1984 as a member of Telugu Desam Party. She was a member of the

for two consecutive terms and Chief Whip of Telugu Desam Parliamentary party from 1986 to 1998. She was also the Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare from 1997 to 1998 in the cabinet of H. D. Deve Gowda. She left

Telugu Desam Party The Telugu Desam Party (TDP; ) is an Indian regional political party primarily active in the Federated state, states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It was founded by Telugu cinema, Telugu matinée idol N. T. Rama Rao (NTR) on 29 March 1982 a ...

to join

Congress party The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement t ...

in 1998. In 1999 and 2004, she was elected to the

13th In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the Musical note, note thirteen scale degrees from the root (chord), root of a chord (music), chord and also the interval (music), interval between the root and the thirteenth. The thirteenth is m ...

and 14th

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

respectively representing

Khammam Khammam is the city in Khammam district of the Indian state of Telangana. It is the fourth largest city in the state. It is the headquarters of the Khammam district and Khammam Tehsil, mandal also. It is located about east of the state capital ...

. Other positions include memberships on the Committee on Finance (1999–2000) and Committee on the Empowerment of Women (2000–2001). In May 2004 she became the Minister of State for Tourism in the UPA I government. She was the Union minister of State (Independent Charge) for

in the UPA I government from January 2006 to May 2009. In the May 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Renuka Chowdary was defeated by Nama Nageswara Rao of TDP from

by 1,24,448 votes. The

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

newspaper, ''Mid Day'', reported in 2009 that, in response to "Sri Ram Sena's Valentine's Day threat" Chowdary said that youth should "swarm" pubs and make a point to the "moral police brigade". After the

2009 Mangalore pub attack On 24 January 2009, the Sri Ram Sena attacked a group of young women and men in a pub in Mangalore, India. A group of 40 activists of the Sri Rama Sena barged into the pub "Amnesia – The Lounge" and beat up a group of young women and men ...

by the

Sri Ram Sena The Shree Ram Sena (), or Shree Ram Sena, is a right-wing Hindutva group founded & headed by Pramod Muthalik. It has received media attention for its acts of moral policing, including the 2009 Mangalore pub attack. Ideology The Sena is a righ ...

Chouwdary commented that Mangalore had been "talibanized". This resulted in a case being filed against her by the town's mayor, accusing her of glorifying isolated incidents and making generalized comments about the city. The "Pub Bharo" campaign was actually being headed by her younger daughter Tejaswini. Chowdary became a spokesperson for the Congress and was re-elected to Rajya Sabha in 2012,(25 March 2012
55 elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha
the Hindu, retrieved 30 March 2012 and 2024 from Telangana.

Parliamentary Committees

* Member, Committee on Finance (1999-2000) * Member, Committee on the Empowerment of Women (2000-2001) * Member, Committee on Government Assurances (May 2012 – Sept. 2014) * Member, Committee on Finance (May 2012 – May 2014) * Member, Business Advisory Committee (May 2013 – Sept. 2014) * Member, Committee on Agriculture (Sept. 2014–Present) * Member, House Committee (Sept. 2014–Present) * Member, General Purposes Committee (April 2016 – Present) * Chairperson, Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests (April 2016 – 2018)

References

External links

Renuka Chowdhury profile
at India.gov.in {{DEFAULTSORT:Chowdhury, Renuka Indian National Congress politicians from Telangana Telugu politicians India MPs 1999–2004 India MPs 2004–2009 Union ministers of state of India with independent charge Union ministers from United Andhra Pradesh Women in Telangana politics 1954 births Living people Politicians from Visakhapatnam Bangalore University alumni Telugu Desam Party politicians from Telangana Women's ministers of India Rajya Sabha members from Andhra Pradesh People from Khammam district Lok Sabha members from Andhra Pradesh Women in Andhra Pradesh politics 20th-century Indian women politicians 21st-century Indian women politicians Women union ministers of state of India Women members of the Lok Sabha Women members of the Rajya Sabha Welham Girls' School alumni