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. 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 Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mod ...

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

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

and

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

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

Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly (Hindi: ''Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha'') is the lower house of the bicameral legislature of Uttar Pradesh. There are 403 seats in the house filled by direct election using a single-member first-past-the- ...

. 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 is a Dalit community classified as a Scheduled Caste under modern India's system of affirmative action. Historically subject to untouchability, they were traditionally outside the Hindu ritual ranking system of castes known as varna ...

caste. She completed her postgraduate education in Sanskrit at the

University of Jammu A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

in 2007. Three years later, she graduated from

Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University Aerial view of Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University Campus Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University (CSJMU), formerly Kanpur University, is a public state university located in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is administered under the state ...

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 peop ...

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 2014 Indian general election, she contested Misrikh constituency and defeated her nearest rival Ashok Kumar Rawat of the Bahujan Samaj Party 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 ''Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme'' (MPLADS) is a scheme formulated by Government of India on 23 December 1993 that enables the members of parliaments (MP) to recommend developmental work in their constituencies with an emphas ...

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 voter ...

. 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 in India.

Personal life

Bala married Krishna Kumar Singh of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

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 21st-century Indian politicians University of Jammu alumni