Powerful Indian Women Politicians You Should Know About

In the field of politics, there have not been many women, but the ladies who have been there have rocked the system and made their respctive impressions for sure.From Marie Antoinette to Queen Elizabeth, women across the world have often held the political sceptre firmly in their hands whenever needed. India has also seen such influential female political figures from time to time. Their schemes and political traits have been appreciated or criticised by many. However, their contribution to the development and progress of the country can never be overlooked.

Vasundhara Raje Scindia

Rajasthan's first woman Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje Scindia is one of the most powerful female politicians in India. Vasundhara Raje was introduced to active politics by her mother Vijayraje Scindia, who was a prominent BJP leader. Vasundhara was elected to the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly in 1985. Raje is the current chief minister of Rajasthan. She has been holding this position since 2013; Previously she served in the same post from 2003 to 2008, and was the first female to hold the post.

Ambika Soni

Ambika Soni has served as the Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting. Currently a Member of Parliament, Soni represents the state of Punjab in the Rajya Sabha. She was introduced to the Congress party by Indira Gandhi in 1969. She is also an old family acquaintance of the Gandhi family.

Mayawati

An Indian politician who spent four separate terms as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati is the national president of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). It focuses on a platform of social change to improve the lives of the weakest strata of Indian society — the Bahujans or Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, and religious minorities. She was chief minister briefly in 1995 and again in 1997, then from 2002 to 2003 and from 2007 to 2012.

Sonia Gandhi

She needs no introduction. The all-in-all of All India Congress, Sonia Gandhi's tenure as the Congress president has been the longest in its century-old history. She recently vacated the post for her son, Rahul Gandhi. She is also the chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). Her foreign birth has been a subject of much debate and controversy. Although she never held any public office in the Government Of India, Gandhi has been widely described as one of the most powerful politicians in the country, and is often listed among the most powerful women in the world.

Mamata Banerjee

Popularly known as Didi, Banerjee is the first woman Chief Minister of West Bengal. In 2011 she pulled off a landslide victory for the TMC Congress alliance in West Bengal, defeating the 34-year-old Communist Party of India (Marxist)- led Left Front government, the world's longest-serving democratically elected communist government in the process. She was also the first woman railway minister of the country. In 1997, she launched Trinamool Congress, an anti-leftist party, to consolidate her position in West Bengal. In 2012, Time magazine named her as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.

Sushma Swaraj

Seven times Member of Parliament and three times Member of the Legislative Assemby, Sushma Swaraj, the BJP leader, is now the Union Minister Of External Affairs of India. She is the second woman to hold this position after Indira Gandhi.

Swaraj is a former Supreme Court lawyer, who has served as the Minister of External Affairs of India since 26 May 2014. At the age of 25 in 1977, she became the youngest cabinet minister of north Indian state of Haryana. She also served as 5th Chief Minister of Delhi from 13 October 1998 to 3 December 1998. In the 2014 Indian general election, she won the Vidisha constituency in Madhya Pradesh for a second term, retaining her seat by a margin of over 400,000 votes. Swaraj was called India's 'best-loved politician' by the US daily Wall Street Journal.