Renu Devi (born 1 November 1958) is an Indian politician who served as the 5th

Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar The Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar is the seniormost cabinet member of the state government who serves as the de-facto second head of the state. He is the second highest ranking executive authority of the state's council of ministers. The curr ...

from 16 November 2020 to 9 August 2022. She became the fifth female Deputy Chief Minister of India from Bihar in 2020. A former national Vice-President of 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 ...

, she is currently a Member of the

Bihar Legislative Assembly The Bihar Legislative Assembly, also known as the Bihar Vidhan Sabha, is the lower house of the Bihar Legislature where the first elections were held in 1952. The total strength of membership in the Assembly was 331, including one nominated m ...

and the deputy legislative leader of party for the

National Democratic Alliance National Democratic Alliance (NDA) () is a Centre-right politics, centre-right to Right-wing politics, right-wing and Conservatism, conservative Indian big tent political alliance led by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was foun ...

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Personal life

Renu, eldest of her parents' three sons and five daughters, comes from the Noniya caste, an extremely backward Class (EBC) community. She completed

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

education in 1977 from the

Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University, formerly Bihar University, popularly known as Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Bihar University (BRABU), is a public university located in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, India. Established in 1960, the university has 38 const ...

. She was married to a

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

-based insurance inspector named Durga Prasad in 1973. However, the sudden death of her husband within seven years of marriage made her return to Bettiah, her mother's hometown, and pursue it as her ''karmabhoomi''. She is a single parent with two children.

Political career

Renu Devi's mother was associated with the

Sangh Parivar The Sangh Parivar (translation: "Family of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh" or the "RSS family") refers, as an umbrella term, to the collection of Hindu nationalist organisations spawned by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which rema ...

, which is said to have strongly influenced her. Renu Devi was also part of

Durga Vahini The Durga Vahini (ISO: Durgā Vāhinī ) (''Army of Durga'') is the women's wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP). It was established in 1991 and its founding chairperson is Sadhvi Rithambara. The Vishva Hindu Parishad states the purpose of t ...

, the women's wing of the

Vishwa Hindu Parishad The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) () is an Indian right-wing Hindu organization based on Hindu nationalism. The VHP was founded in 1964 by M. S. Golwalkar and S. S. Apte in collaboration with Swami Chinmayananda. Its stated objective is "to ...

. Beginning her political career through social activism in 1981, she later joined the

BJP Mahila Morcha BJP Mahila Morcha, or simply Mahila Morcha (IPA: Mahilā Mōrcā, ), is the women's wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of India. Vanathi Srinivasan, former Tamil Nadu BJP Unit Vice president and current Member of the Tamil Nadu Legislat ...

or BJP women's wing in 1988. Next year, she was given the responsibility to head the wing in the

Champaran Champaran is a region of Bihar in India. It is now divided into an East Champaran district and a West Champaran district. Notable people * Manoj Bajpai – Indian film actor * Dinesh Bhramar – poet and noted figure in Hindi and Bhojpuri l ...

region. She was further chosen as the wing's state head for two terms, in 1993 and 1996. Though she unsuccessfully contested her first election in 1995 from the Nautan Assembly seat, she was successful in being elected four times from

Bettiah Bettiah is a city and administrative headquarters of West Champaran district ( Tirhut Division) - (Tirhut), near Indo-Nepal border, north-west of Patna, in Bihar state of India. History In 1244 A.D., Gangeshwar Dev, a Bhumihar Brahmin of ...

(2000-2015;2020–present), another division of

West Champaran West Champaran is an administrative district in the Indian state, state of Bihar in India, located just west of Birgunj. It is the largest district in Bihar with an area of 5,228 km²(2,019sq mi). It is a part of Tirhut Division. The distri ...

district, to the

. She lost 2015 elections to a Mahagathbandhan candidate from whom she recovered the seat again in 2020. She served as the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture in the Bihar State Government between 2005 and 2009. She was also a national vice-president of the BJP between 2014 and 2020, and was nominated as a member of the National Working Committee of the party by

Amit Shah Amit Anil Chandra Shah (born 22 October 1964) is an Indian politician currently serving as the Minister of Home Affairs since 2019 and the first Minister of Co-operation of India since 2021. He served as the President of the Bharatiya Janata P ...

. Her appointment in 2020 as a Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar has been positively received.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Devi, Renu Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Bihar Living people State cabinet ministers of Bihar People from West Champaran district People from Bettiah Women members of the Bihar Legislative Assembly Bihar MLAs 2000–2005 Bihar MLAs 2005–2010 Bihar MLAs 2010–2015 Bihar MLAs 2020–2025 Deputy Chief Ministers of Bihar 1958 births 20th-century Indian women 20th-century Indian people Women deputy chief ministers of Indian states 21st-century Indian women politicians