Rajinder kaur bhattal biography of donald

Rajinder Kaur Bhattal

Indian politician

Rajinder Kaur Bhattal (born 30 September ) is an Indian politician and member of Congress who served as the 14th Chief Minister of Punjab from to and 2nd Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab from to She is the first and so far only female to hold the office of Chief Minister in Punjab.[1] Overall she is 8th female Chief Minister and 3rd female deputy chief minister in India. Since she has won from Lehra Assembly Constituency five terms consecutively.

Early life

She was born on 30 September in Lahore in Punjab to Hira Singh Bhattal and Harnam Kaur. She was married to Lal Singh Sidhu at village Changali Wala, Lehragaga in Sangrur district and had two children, a girl and a boy.

Political career

In , Bhattal was a state education minister in Chandigarh.[2] Bhattal became the first female Chief Minister of Punjab when she took office after the resignation of Harcharan Singh Brar,[1] serving from November to February , the eighth female Chief Minister in Indian history.[3] Before she became the chief minister, she also served as deputy chief minister for a short period of time under Harcharan Singh Brar's cabinet.[4] Her initiatives as Chief Minister of Punjab included, in December , a scheme to provide grants of free electricity to small farmers in order to power wells.[5]

After the Congress party lost the February assembly elections in Punjab, bringing an end to her term as Chief Minister, Bhattal took over as president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee from Singh Randhawa in May,[6] and then as leader of the Congress Legislature Party until October , when she was ousted from her position and replaced by Chaudhary Jagjit Singh.[7] Her ousting, amid claims of misleading statements about the involvement of the Congress leadership,[7] was followed by a protracted dispute with Amarinder Singh, who had succeeded her as Punjab Congress president, and who was seen as responsible for her removal. By , Bhattal had publicly pledged to remove Singh from his position as Chief Minister and was backed by dozens of dissident MLAs from the Congress party.[8] The dispute saw intervention from the central command of the Congress party in New Delhi, with Sonia Gandhi taking a hand in negotiations. Initially the dissident group led by Bhattal rejected any solution other than the removal of Singh.

In January , Bhattal accepted a position as deputy chief minister of Punjab, with other dissidents also taking roles in the cabinet, in a bid to heal the divisions.[10] Denying that the dissidents had made demands in order to gain these concessions, Bhattal said that she had accepted the post because Sonia Gandhi had asked her to do so.[11] In March , Bhattal became leader of the Congress Legislature Party in Punjab Vidhan Sabha.[12] The dispute rumbled on, however, and in April the party high command once again had to intervene, this time asking both Singh and Bhattal to cease speaking to the media about their disagreements.[13]

During this period, Bhattal also saw off attempted prosecutions, with a court acquitting her of corruption charges in April [14] Continuing as Punjab Congress leader, she also took credit for successfully pressuring the administration of Parkash Singh Badal to introduce a debt waiver scheme for farmers.[15]

As of June , Bhattal remains the Punjab Congress Legislature Party leader.[16]

She was one of the 42 INC MLAs who submitted their resignation in protest of a decision of the Supreme Court of India ruling Punjab's termination of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) water canal unconstitutional.[17]

References

  1. ^ abBouton, Marshall M.; Oldenburg, Philip (). India briefing: a transformative fifty years. M.E. Sharpe. p.&#; ISBN&#;.
  2. ^"Teachers strike after one is slapped", The Gadsden Times, 27 May
  3. ^"Mamata Banerjee to be India's 14th Woman CM", Outlook Magazine, 17 May , retrieved 11 July
  4. ^"Two months crisis in punjab congress legislature party resolved". India Today. 31 August
  5. ^Dhillon, G.S. (17 December ), "Aftermath of free power bonanza to Punjab farmers", The Tribune, retrieved 11 July
  6. ^"Randhawa quits Punjab Congress chief post", The Indian Express, 19 May , retrieved 11 July
  7. ^ ab"Bhattal questions her removal", The Indian Express, 28 November , retrieved 11 July
  8. ^"Bhattal to give signed list of disgruntled legislators", The Economic Times, 12 December , archived from the original on 9 May , retrieved 11 July
  9. ^"Bhattal deputy CM, expansion soon", The Times of India, 7 January , archived from the original on 8 September , retrieved 11 July
  10. ^"Bhattal speaks to reporters on Amarinder", The Times of India, 10 January , archived from the original on 10 September , retrieved 11 July
  11. ^"Bhattal elected leader of CLP", The Hindu, 12 March , retrieved 11 July
  12. ^Bains, Satinder (23 April ). "Congress high command brings truce between Amarinder, Bhattal". Punjab Newsline. Retrieved 11 July
  13. ^PTI (2 April ). "Badal Govt won't fight Bhattal clean chit". The Indian Express. Retrieved 11 July
  14. ^"Bhattal thanks Centre for debt relief scheme for farmers". The Hindu. 29 February Archived from the original on 10 November Retrieved 11 July
  15. ^"Bhattal calls for immediate release Filled in 2 bare reference(s) with reFill 2 of grant to aided schools". Punjab Newsline. 18 June Retrieved 11 July
  16. ^PTI (11 November ). "SYL verdict: 42 Punjab Congress MLAs resign". The Indian Express. Retrieved 20 April