Who is Annpurna Devi Yadav?
Annpurna Devi Yadav is a politician from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who is serving as Minister of Women and Child Development since June 2024 after she won Lok Sabha elections from Koderma seat for a second time.
Born on February 2, 1970, into a Bengali-speaking family in Jharkhand's Dumka, she pursued her master's degree at Ranchi University.
Annpurna Devi was the Minister of State for Education in the previous Modi government. She is also one of the National Vice Presidents of BJP.
Previously, she was elected to the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly, from Kodarma (Vidhan Sabha constituency) as a member of the Rashtriya Janata Dal.
Political career
She had never planned on entering the political arena. She decided to enter politics after her husband, Ramesh Yadav, an RJD legislator, died suddenly in 1998.
From 2005 to 2014, she served two terms in the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly. In 2012, she was appointed a cabinet minister in Jharkhand, overseeing the Ministry of Irrigation, Women & Child Welfare, and Registration.
Annapurna's political journey took a surprising turn when she joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) just before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Prior to this unexpected move, she had been leading the Jharkhand unit of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
Now, her influence among the OBCs extends beyond the mica-belt of Koderma, reaching across the entire state, making her a pivotal player in the political landscape.
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