Premala Chavan (2 July 1918 – 8 July 2003), also known as Premalabai and Premalakaki, was an Indian politician and was a member of the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

and the

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

. The Founder-President of the All India Women's Cricket Association, she was involved in various other activities that contributed to the welfare of women in Indian society. Chavan is notable for holding the record for the most number of representations (four) in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, by a female M.P. from

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

Personal life

Chavan was born to the M. N. Rao Jagdale in the Baroda district of

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

. She completed her primary and secondary education at S.N.D.T. in Indore, after which she went to St. Xavier's College Bombay, where she received a Diploma in Montessori Education. Premala married

Dajisaheb Chavan Dajisaheb Ramrao Chavan (22 August 1916 – 8 July 1973) was an Indian politician and served as a Member of parliament, Lok Sabha for 16 years. A member of the Indian National Congress, he was the former Union Deputy Minister for Defence and Law ...

on 27 April 1942. She was the mother of the ex-Chief Minister of Maharashtra,

Prithviraj Chavan Prithviraj Chavan () (born 17 March 1946) is an Indian politician who was the 17th Chief Minister of Maharashtra, a state in Western India. Chavan is a graduate of the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani and University of Cali ...

, along with Nirupama Ajitrao Yadav and Vidlyulata Vyankatrao Ghorpade.

Political career

Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha

Chavan was a member of the Peasants and Workers Party of Maharashtra from 1952-60. Later, she represented the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

party in the Fifth Lok Sabha (1971–77), the Sixth Lok Sabha (1977–79), the Eighth Lok Sabha (1984–89), and the Rajya Sabha (1980–84). After her husband's death, she was elected unopposed to the Lok Sabha in a by-poll in 1973. She was re-elected from the

Karad Karad is a city in Satara district of Indian state of Maharashtra and it is 320 km (180.19 miles) from Mumbai and 159 km from Pune. It lies at the confluence of Koyna River and the Krishna River known as the "Priti sangam". T ...

constituency for the next three terms. After the post-emergency split in the Congress, when many party veterans in the state aligned with the congress led by Devraj Urs, Chavan chose to remain with

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 ...

and also served as the Congress(i) State President at that time. When Indira Gandhi returned to power in 1980, she nominated Chavan to Rajya Sabha in 1981. Chavan was re-elected to the Lok Sabha from Karad in 1989. Chavan retired from politics in 1991 when

Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi (; 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian politician who served as the sixth prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the 1984 assassination of his mother, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to beco ...

asked her son to continue the family's political legacy in parliament. Chavan participated in the Lok Sabha until 1991, until which point she had contested from her late constituency and served in the same capacity for all consecutive terms. Prithviraj Chavan#Early life

Committee experience

Chavan was a member of the Committee on Subordinate Legislation, the Committee on Official Language, and the Business Advisory Committee from 1985–87; a member of the Rules Committee from 1987–89; a member of the Consultative Committee, the Department of Atomic Energy, Space, Electronics, Ocean Development and the Ministry of Science and Technology in 1990.

Social activities

Chavan was the founder of the Polytechnic Engineering College in Karad and she started the first Montessori School in Karad in 1951. In addition to this, she started the Mahila Mandal Movement in 1950 in Karad. Later, in 1973, she founded the All India Women's Cricket Association.

Death

Chavan died on 8 July 2003. She and her husband both died on 8 July, in different years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chavan, Premala 1918 births 2003 deaths Women in Maharashtra politics People from Karad Indian National Congress politicians from Maharashtra Lok Sabha members from Maharashtra Chavan Premala India MPs 1971–1977 India MPs 1977–1979 India MPs 1984–1989 Marathi politicians 20th-century Indian women politicians 20th-century Indian politicians India MPs 1989–1991 Women members of the Lok Sabha Women members of the Rajya Sabha