Renu Kushawaha (also called Renu Kumari Singh), an Indian politician, is a former leader of

Lok Janshakti Party The Lok Janshakti Party ( LJP, "People’s Manpower Party") was a state political party mainly based in the state of Bihar, India. The party was formed in 2000 when Ram Vilas Paswan split from Janata Dal. The party had a considerable followin ...

and a former state minister 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 ...

. She hails from

Khagaria Khagaria is a city in Indian state of Bihar and the administrative headquarters of Khagaria district. Khagaria is a part of Munger division. It is located at and has an average elevation of 36 metres (118 feet). The Khagaria Junct ...

. She has been associated with several political parties in past, right from

Samata Party The Samata Party (SAP) is a political party in India, initially formed in 1994 by George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar, now led by Uday Mandal its National President. Samata Party once launched Nitish Kumar as the Chief Minister of Bihar. It was ...

(now led by Uday Mandal its President) and

Janata Dal (United) Janata Dal (United) ("People’s Party (United)”) abbreviated as JD(U) is an Indian political party with political presence mainly in eastern and north-eastern India. JD(U) is recognised as a state party in the states of Bihar , Arunachal Pra ...

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 ...

. In 2015, she contested from Samastipur Assembly seat on a BJP ticket where she lost to RJD candidate.

Biography

Kushawaha was born in Samastipur in 1962. Her husband is Vijay Kumar Singh who is also a politician with allegiance to the

(BJP). Kushawaha contested elections for the Bihar State assembly in 2010. She was elected as a Member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly from

Bihariganj Bihariganj is a city in the Madhepura district of Bihar, India. Bihariganj is located in Northeast India and is part of the Mithila region. History The ancient name of Bihariganj was "Nishankhpur Kodha". In medieval times, Bihariganj was ruled ...

constituency in

Madhepura district Madhepura district is one of the thirty-eight districts of Bihar state, India, and Madhepura town is the administrative headquarters of this district. Madhepura district is a part of Kosi division. History Madhepura is part of the Mithila regio ...

. Later, she was made a Cabinet Minister in the Government of Bihar, headed by Nitish Kumar as the

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

. She held the portfolio of Industries and Disaster Management and was the only woman minister in the cabinet. In 2014, her son Vipin Kumar was abducted for a ransom of fifty lakh and was killed some time after the abduction.

Political career

She has been an MLA three times and once an MP in her political life. Not only this, she has also been a cabinet minister twice in the Bihar government led by

Nitish Kumar Nitish Kumar (born 1 March 1951) is an Indian politician, who is serving as Chief Minister of Bihar since 22 February 2015, having previous held the office from 2005 to 2014 and for a short period in 2000. The leader of the Janata Dal (Unite ...

. In the 1999 parliamentary election, Renu Kushwaha of

defeated Nayana Rana, wife of

Rashtriya Janata Dal The Rashtriya Janata Dal ( RJD; translation: ''National People's Party'') is an Indian political party, based in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Kerala. The party was founded in 1997 by Lalu Prasad Yadav. The party's support base has tradit ...

veteran RK Rana, by 31,822 votes from Khagaria constituency. Although Renu lost to RK Rana of RJD in 2004 elections. Earlier in February 2005, Renu defeated RJD strongman and then minister of the state Ravindra Charan Yadav on a JDU ticket from Udkishunganj assembly constituency in Madhepura. Again, Renu Kushwaha won in November 2005 by-election. In 2009, she became the Minister of Agriculture in the

Government of Bihar The Government of Bihar, known locally as the State Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Bihar and its 9 divisions which consist of 38 districts . It consists of an executive, led by the Governor of Bihar, a jud ...

. After this, in 2010, after the delimitation of the new assembly, she contested from Bihariganj. This time also supported by her fortune, Renu defeated

Ranjeet Ranjan Ranjeet Ranjan (born 7 January 1974) also known as Ranjeeta is an Indian politician serving as Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha from Chhattisgarh. She was member of the 14th Lok Sabha as a Member of Parliament from Supaul, Bihar from the Indi ...

, wife of veteran

Pappu Yadav Rajesh Ranjan (born 24 December 1967), better known as Pappu Yadav, is an Indian politician. He won elections to the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Parliament of India) in 1991, 1996, 1999, 2004 and 2014 from several constituencies in Bihar ...

. She was then made the Minister of Industry and Disaster. But after her husband Vijay Kumar Singh joined BJP in 2014, she resigned from JDU and joined BJP. In the

2014 Lok Sabha elections General elections were held in India in nine phases from 7 April to 12 May 2014 to elect the members of the 16th Lok Sabha. With 834 million registered voters, they were the largest-ever elections in the world until being surpassed by the 2019 ...

, Vijay Kumar Singh contested on BJP's ticket from

Madhepura Madhepura is a municipality in Madhepura district in the Indian state of Bihar. It stands at the centre of Kosi ravine, It was called ''Madhyapura-'' a place centrally situated which was subsequently transformed as Madhipura into present Madhep ...

constituency. But he had to taste defeat. In 2019, she resigned from the

, as she was denied Lok Sabha ticket from Khagaria. Her resignation from JDU to join BJP was necessitated by the fact that earlier, she along with four other legislators were suspended by the JDU for anti-party activities. She later joined Lok Janshakti Party and resigned in April 2024.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kushawaha, Renu 1962 births Living people Bihar MLAs 2000–2005 Bihar MLAs 2005–2010 People from Samastipur Women members of the Bihar Legislative Assembly People from Madhepura district Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Bihar 21st-century Indian women politicians 21st-century Indian politicians 20th-century Indian women 20th-century Indian people India MPs 1999–2004 Lok Sabha members from Bihar Samata Party politicians Janata Dal (United) politicians Lok Janshakti Party politicians