Aparajita Sarangi ( Mishra; born 8 October 1969) is an Indian politician from 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 the incumbent

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 ...

from

Bhubaneswar Bhubaneswar (; ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Odisha. The region, especially the old town, was historically often depicted as ''Ekamra Kshetra'' (area (''kshetra'') adorned with mango trees (''ekamra'')). Bhubaneswar is ...

. A former Odisha cadre

Indian Administrative Service The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. Considered the premier civil service of India, the IAS is one of the three arms of the All India Services along with the Indian ...

(IAS) officer of the 1994 batch, Sarangi quit her job and joined the BJP on 27 November 2018 to contest the

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 ...

. She was fielded against

Biju Janata Dal The Biju Janata Dal (; BJD) is a regional political party in the Indian state of Odisha founded and led by Naveen Patnaik, the current Chief Minister of Odisha and the son of former Chief Minister of Odisha Biju Patnaik, after whom the party i ...

Arup Patnaik Arup Patnaik (born 8 September 1955) was the 36th Police Commissioner of Mumbai. He is revered as one of the most dynamic and respected IPS officers of the Maharashtra cadre. He retired on 30 September 2015 after a distinguished career in the M ...

. Sarangi was awarded with the Shakti Samman in 2012. She had last served as the Joint Secretary in the

Ministry of Rural Development Ministry of Rural Development may refer to: * Ministry of Rural Development (Cambodia) * Ministry of Rural Development (Hungary) * Ministry of Rural Development (India) * Ministry of Rural Development (Malaysia) Ministry of Rural Development may r ...

and has also worked as Bhubaneswar Municipal Commissioner and secretary of the state's mass education department. Her husband, Santosh Sarangi, is also an IAS officer of the same batch.

Early life and education

Aparajita was born to Ajit Mishra and Kusum Mishra in

Muzaffarpur district Muzaffarpur District is one of the thirty-eight districts of Bihar States and territories of India, state, India. Muzaffarpur district is part of and also the headquarters of Tirhut division, Tirhut Division Tirhut is the ancient name of all of ...

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

on 8 October 1969. Her father Ajit was a professor of English. She passed matriculation from Mount Carmel School, Bhagalpur, Bihar. She was the head of the School Cabinet. She graduated in English (Honours) from S.M. College, Bhagalpur University. She cleared the

Civil Services Examination The Civil Services Examination (CSE) is a national competitive examination in India conducted by the Union Public Service Commission for recruitment to higher Civil Services of the Government of India, including the Indian Administrative Se ...

in 1994 at the age of 24.

Civil service

Aparajita joined the

from 1994 batch of

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...

cadre. In 1996 she served as Sub-Collector of three Sub-Divisions and Additional District Magistrate. From 1998 to 2006 she served as Collector and District Magistrate of Khordha, Nuapada, Koraput, and Bargarh. From 2006 to 2009 she served as the Municipal Commissioner of Bhubaneswar. In 2009 she was appointed Secretary in various departments like School Education, Panchayati Raj and Textile in Government of Odisha. In 2013 she moved to Central government as Joint Secretary for Ministry of Rural Development in the Government of India. She retired as a civil servant in 2018 after taking voluntary retirement.

Politics

After taking retirement as a civil servant, Aparajita Sarangi joined the

and later contested elections. She was later appointed as member of parliamentary committees. She was also appointed as a spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

References

1969 births Living people Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Odisha 21st-century Indian women politicians 21st-century Indian politicians Women in Odisha politics Indian Administrative Service officers Municipal Commissioners of India India MPs 2019–present People from Bhagalpur People from Muzaffarpur {{Odisha-BJP-politician-stub