Shruti Choudhry (born 3 October 1975) is an

Indian politician The Politics and Government of India works within the framework of the country's Constitution, which was adopted in 1950. India is a parliamentary secular democratic republic, described as a “sovereign, socialist, secular democratic republ ...

from

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

belonging to 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 ...

. Since October 2024, she has been serving as a Cabinet Minister in the

Government of Haryana Government of Haryana, also known as the State Government of Haryana, or locally as the Haryana Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Haryana and its 22 districts. It consists of an executive, ceremonially led ...

after being elected as a

Member of the Legislative Assembly A Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected to sit in a legislative assembly. The term most commonly refers to members of the legislature of a federated state or an autonomous region, but is also used for several nation ...

(MLA) from Tosham Assembly constituency. Choudhry is the granddaughter of the former Chief Minister of Haryana,

Bansi Lal Bansi Lal Legha (26 August 1927 – 28 March 2006), also known as Chaudhary Bansi Lal, was an Indian politician and independence activist, who served as the Minister of Defence of India and three-time Chief Minister of Haryana. He is also kno ...

. Previously, she was a member of the

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 ...

since 2005 and represented Bhiwani-Mahendragarh (Lok Sabha constituency) in the Indian Parliament from 2009 to 2014.

Early life

Shruti Choudhry was born in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

on 3 October 1975. Her parents were

Surender Singh Surender Singh (15 November 1946 - 31 March 2005) was an Indian politician from the Haryana Vikas Party and twice (1996, 1998) represented Bhiwani constituency in the Lok Sabha, was a Rajya Sabha member 1986–1992, and twice represented Tosha ...

and Kiran Choudhry, both of whom had served as ministers in the

government of Haryana Government of Haryana, also known as the State Government of Haryana, or locally as the Haryana Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Haryana and its 22 districts. It consists of an executive, ceremonially led ...

. Her paternal grandfather was the former Chief minister of

and her family is among the major

Political families of Haryana This is the alphabetical categorised list of statewide, regional and local political families involved in the politics and various elections of Haryana state of India at state (Haryana Legislative Assembly) and national level (Lok Sabha). C ...

. Her family belongs to the Jat community. Choudhry's early education was at the Convent of Jesus & Mary school and Delhi Public School, R K Puram, after which she studied in

Oxford, England Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

. She earned a B.A. from the

University of Delhi The Delhi University (DU, ISO 15919, ISO: ), also and officially known as the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate research university, research Central university (India), central university located in Delhi, India. It ...

and then a

LL.B. A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

from B. R. Ambedkar University in

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 Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is the ...

. On 7 March 2003, she married Arunabh Choudhry, a lawyer.

Political Career

At first practising as a lawyer, Choudhry turned to politics following the death of her father in 2005. Choudhry was chosen by the Indian National Congress party to contest the

2009 Indian general election General elections were held in India in five phases between 16 April 2009 and 13 May 2009 to elect the members of the fifteenth Lok Sabha. With a registered electorate of 716 million and a turnout of 417 million voters, it was the l ...

in the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh constituency of the

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 ...

. Mainly as a consequence of the goodwill that existed for her family in the area, she defeated her nearest rival,

Ajay Singh Chautala Ajay Singh Chautala (born 13 March 1961) is a former Indian MP and sports administrator. He is elder son of former Chief Minister of Haryana Om Prakash Chautala and father of former Deputy Chief Minister of Haryana Dushyant Chautala. Biog ...

of the

Indian National Lok Dal The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) is a political party based primarily in the Indian state of Haryana. It was initially founded as the Haryana Lok Dal (Rashtriya) by Devi Lal in 1996, who served as the Deputy Prime Minister of India. The ...

, by a margin of 55,097 votes. Her grandfather had previously won the same seat three times, and her father had done so twice. During her tenure as a member of Parliament (2009-2014), Choudhry served on the Lok Sabha committees for agriculture and empowerment of women from 2009. She did not win re-election to the Lok Sabha seat in 2014. In the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, the Congress fielded a Hooda loyalist, Rao Dan Singh, instead of Shruti Choudhry from the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat. In June 2024, she and her mother, Kiran Choudhry, quit the Congress party due to the growing differences with the party leader and ex-Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Subsequently, both of them joined the BJP on 19 June 2024, in the presence of several state BJP leaders including Chief Minister

Nayab Singh Saini Nayab Singh Saini (born 25 January 1970) is an Indian politician serving as the Chief Minister of Haryana since March 2024. Previously, he was president of Haryana state unit of Bharatiya Janata Party from 2023 till 2024. Saini is a notable B ...

and former CM Manohar Lal Khattar. After joining BJP, Choudhry said that she was inspired by Prime Minister Modi, who has made "India's name shine across the world," and that earlier Modi and Khattar had also worked along with Chaudhary Bansi Lal. There were mixed reactions from the Congress party over Choudhry and her mother's exit, where some leaders called it a loss for the party, while others asserted that it won't make any difference. According to political analysts, Choudhry's induction may help BJP's standing among the Jat community while also expanding its base in the Bhiwani region. In October 2024, Shruti Choudhry won from the Tosham Assembly constituency in the 2024 Haryana assembly elections by defeating the Congress candidate by 14257 votes.

References

External links

Lok Sabha biographical data
{{DEFAULTSORT:Choudhry, Shruti India MPs 2009–2014 People from Bhiwani 1975 births Living people Lok Sabha members from Haryana Women in Haryana politics United Progressive Alliance candidates in the 2014 Indian general election Delhi University alumni Delhi Public School alumni Indian National Congress politicians from Haryana 21st-century Indian women politicians Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Haryana Haryana MLAs 2024–2029 Women members of the Haryana Legislative Assembly