Rani Chitralekha Bhonsle (26 February 1941 – 16 August 2015) was a political and social worker and a

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 o ...

elected from the

Ramtek Ramtek is a city and municipal council in Nagpur district of Maharashtra, India. History Ramtek hosts the historic temple of Rama. It is believed that Ramtek was the place where Rama, the Hindu god, rested while he was in exile. According to H ...

constituency in the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n state of Maharashtra being an

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 E ...

candidate.

Early life

Bhonsle was born on 26 February 1941 in

Baroda Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capital ...

in the

n state 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 married Tejsingrao Bhonsle on 25 December 1959 and has two sons, Laxmansingh and Mansingh as well as three daughters, Lalitaraje, Menkaraje and Ketkiraje.

Education & interests

Rani completed her

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

from Sahajirao Gaikwad College, M.S. University, Baroda (Gujarat). Her interests include painting and reading. She is also a Chairperson of the District Volleyball Association,

Nagpur Nagpur (pronunciation: aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nagpur is projected to ...

Career

Rani was elected to the 12th

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-p ...

in 1998. During 1998–99, she was a Member on the Consultative Committee, Ministry of Coal.

References

1941 births 2015 deaths Women in Maharashtra politics India MPs 1998–1999 People from Nagpur district Articles created or expanded during Women's History Month (India) - 2014 Marathi politicians Lok Sabha members from Maharashtra 20th-century Indian women politicians 20th-century Indian politicians Indian National Congress politicians from Maharashtra {{Maharashtra-INC-politician-stub