Renuka Chowdhury (born 13 August 1954) is an Indian politician and a member of 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 ...

, she represented the political party in 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 ...

from

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

. She has also served as the Union minister of State (Independent Charge) for Ministry of Women and Child Development and

Tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

in the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

Early life

Born to Air Commodore Suryanarayana Rao and Vasundhara (Born in Madanapalle) on 13 August 1954 in

Vishakhapatnam , image_alt = , image_caption = From top, left to right: Visakhapatnam aerial view, Vizag seaport, Simhachalam Temple, Aerial view of Rushikonda Beach, Beach road, Novotel Visakhapatnam, INS Kursura submarine museum, ...

(Andhra Pradesh). Renuka is the eldest of three daughters. She studied at the

Welham Girls' School Welham Girls' School is a private boarding school for girls located in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India. History The school was established in 1957. Welham was named after the little Welsh village from where its founder, H.S. Oliphant hailed. A ...

Dehradun Dehradun () is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and is governed by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, with the Uttarakhand Legislative As ...

and received her B.A. in Industrial Psychology from

Bangalore University Bangalore University (BU) is a public state university located in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. The university is a part of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and affiliated by Univers ...

. Renuka was married to Sreedhar Chowdhury in 1973.

Career

Chowdhury entered politics in 1984 as a member of Telugu Desam Party. She was a member of the

for two consecutive terms and Chief Whip of Telugu Desam Parliamentary party from 1986 to 1998. She was also the Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare from 1997 to 1998 in the cabinet of

H. D. Deve Gowda Haradanahalli Doddegowda Deve Gowda (; born 18 May 1933 in) is an Indian politician from the state of Karnataka. He served as the 11th prime minister of India from 1 June 1996 to 21 April 1997. He was previously the 14th Chief Minister of Karn ...

. She left

Telugu Desam Party The Telugu Desam Party (; TDP) is an Indian regional political party operating in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana at the state and central level. Since its founding by N. T. Rama Rao (often referred to as NTR) on 29 March 1982, the party has foc ...

to join Congress party in 1998. In 1999 and 2004, she was elected to the 13th and 14th

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 ...

respectively representing

Khammam Khammam formally (Khammam Mettu) is the city in Khammam district of the Indian state of Telangana. It is the fourth largest city in the state. It is the headquarters of the Khammam district and Khammam mandal also. It is located about east of ...

. Other positions include memberships on the Committee on Finance (1999–2000) and Committee on the Empowerment of Women (2000–2001). In May 2004 she became the Minister of State for Tourism in the UPA I government. She was the Union minister of State (Independent Charge) for Ministry of Women and Child Development in the UPA I government from January 2006 to May 2009. In the May 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Renuka Chowdary was defeated by Nama Nageswara Rao of TDP from

by 1,24,448 votes. The

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

newspaper, ''Mid Day'', reported in 2009 that, in response to "Sri Ram Sena's Valentine's Day threat" Chowdary said that youth should "swarm" pubs and make a point to the "moral police brigade". After the 2009 Mangalore pub attack by the

Sri Ram Sena The Sri Ram Sena (), or Sri Ram Sene, is a Hindutva-wing Hindu group founded & headed by Pramod Muthalik. It has received media attention for its acts of moral policing, including the 2009 Mangalore pub attack. Ideology The Sena is a right ...

Chouwdary commented that Mangalore had been "talibanized". This resulted in a case being filed against her by the town's mayor, accusing her of glorifying isolated incidents and making generalized comments about the city. The "Pub Bharo" campaign was actually being headed by her younger daughter Tejaswini. Chowdary became a spokesperson for the Congress and was re-elected to Rajya Sabha in 2012.(25 March 2012
55 elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha
the Hindu, retrieved 30 March 2012

Parliamentary Committees

* Member, Committee on Finance (1999-2000) * Member, Committee on the Empowerment of Women (2000-2001) * Member, Committee on Government Assurances (May 2012 – Sept. 2014) * Member, Committee on Finance (May 2012 – May 2014) * Member, Business Advisory Committee (May 2013 – Sept. 2014) * Member, Committee on Agriculture (Sept. 2014–Present) * Member, House Committee (Sept. 2014–Present) * Member, General Purposes Committee (April 2016 – Present) * Chairperson, Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests (April 2016 – 2018)

References

External links

Renuka Chowdhury profile
at India.gov.in {{DEFAULTSORT:Chowdhury, Renuka Indian National Congress politicians from Andhra Pradesh Telugu politicians India MPs 1999–2004 India MPs 2004–2009 Union ministers of state of India with independent charge Telangana politicians Women in Telangana politics 1954 births Living people Politicians from Visakhapatnam Bangalore University alumni Telugu Desam Party politicians Women's ministers Rajya Sabha members from Andhra Pradesh People from Khammam district Lok Sabha members from Andhra Pradesh Women in Andhra Pradesh politics 20th-century Indian women politicians 20th-century Indian politicians 21st-century Indian women politicians 21st-century Indian politicians Women union ministers of state of India Women members of the Lok Sabha Women members of the Rajya Sabha Welham Girls' School alumni