Sarita Rai (born 1959) is an Indian politician from

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

, India. She was a member of the

West Bengal Legislative Assembly The West Bengal Legislative Assembly (ISO 15919, ISO: ''Paścimabaṅga Vidhānasabhā'') is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of West Bengal, located in eastern India. It consists of 294 members directly elected from single-seat ...

representing

Gorkha Janmukti Morcha The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) is a registered unrecognized political party, that campaigns for the creation of a separate state Gorkhaland within India, out of districts in the north of West Bengal. The party was launched on 7 October 2007. T ...

from

Kalimpong Assembly constituency Kalimpong Assembly constituency is an Vidhan Sabha, assembly constituency in Kalimpong district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of West Bengal. Overview As per orders of the Delimitation Commission of India, Delimitation C ...

from 2016 to 2021.

Early life and education

Rai is from

Kalimpong Kalimpong is a town and the headquarters of an eponymous district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located at an average elevation of . The town is the headquarters of the Kalimpong district. The region comes under Gorkhaland Territo ...

, West Bengal. She is a teacher of

Nepali language Nepali (; , ), or ''Gorkhali'' is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language native to the Himalayas region of South Asia. It is the official and most widely spoken Languages of Nepal, language of Nepal, where it also serves as a ''lingua fr ...

at St George's School,

Pedong Pedong is a town in the Pedong CD block in the Kalimpong subdivision of the Kalimpong district in the Indian state of West Bengal. The town is very close to Resi-Sikkim border. Pedong lies on the National Highway-717A connecting Bagrakote t ...

. She married late Uday Prakash Rai. She completed her MA in history at

University of North Bengal The University of North Bengal (also North Bengal University, abbreviated as NBU) is a public state university in the North Bengal region of West Bengal, India. Its main campus is located in Raja Rammohanpur, Siliguri, Darjeeling district, in ...

in 1999. Earlier, she did her BEd, also at University of North Bengal University, in 1980.

Career

Rai won the

2016 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election Legislative Assembly elections were held in 2016 for 294 seats of the ''Vidhan Sabha'' in the Indian state of West Bengal. The All India Trinamool Congress under Mamata Banerjee won 211 seats, and thus was re-elected with an enhanced majority. ...

from the

Kalimpong (Vidhan Sabha constituency) Kalimpong Assembly constituency is an assembly constituency in Kalimpong district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Overview As per orders of the Delimitation Commission, No. 22 Kalimpong Assembly constituency covers Kalimpong municipality, ...

representing the

. She polled 67,693 votes and defeated her nearest rival and sitting MLA Harka Bahadur Chettri, an independent candidate, by a margin of 11,431 votes.

Political party

Sarita Rai is from

References

1959 births West Bengal MLAs 2016–2021 Living people Women members of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly 21st-century Indian women politicians Gorkha Janmukti Morcha politicians People from Kalimpong district Indian Gorkhas Rai people University of North Bengal alumni {{WestBengal-politician-stub