Mriganka Singh is Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP)
candidate for the Kairana constituency in Shamli district for the forthcoming
Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections, starting February 10. The last time she
contested from this constituency was in 2017 when she lost to Samajwadi Party’s
Nahid Hasan.
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The 58-year-old Mriganka Singh is a daughter of BJP MP Hukum
Singh, a seven-time BJP legislator from the Kairana seat and a former Member of
Parliament. After playing a supportive role in her father’s political career
for the last 20 years, she joined mainstream politics and contested the
elections from the legacy seat in 2017. But she lost the elections by 21,162 votes.
She, however, edged out her own cousin Anil Chauhan as
the RLD candidate got 19,992 votes.
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Before joining politics, Mriganka Singh, a Masters in
History, had worked with underprivileged people with a special focus on women’s empowerment. An alumna of Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Singh had also
been running a chain of five private schools in Ghaziabad and Uttar Pradesh,
where more than 9,000 students were enrolled. Mriganka Singh, who is well known
for her works in promoting education among underprivileged children, is being
considered a powerful face this time around.
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In the early 1970s, girls were not much encouraged to
receive education, but as she was very much dedicated towards her studies and also
a brilliant student, her father supported her, and she had managed to complete
BA in Sociology and History from Sophia Girls College. She then did Masters in
History and Bachelor’s degree of Education (B.Ed.) from Maharishi Dayananda
University, Rohtak.
Before joining politics and working as an educationist,
Mriganka Singh had joined the Indian Army as a Commissioned Officer in 1962 and
also fought a war with Pakistan in 1965.
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The last time she contested from Kairana seat, she had
said, “If a doctor’s son can become a doctor, why can’t a politician’s daughter
become a politician?”
Kairana has a 50% Muslim population.
The seven-phase Uttar Pradesh assembly elections for 403
seats is beginning on February 10. The final phase of voting is scheduled for
March 7, with the results set to be declared on March 10.
