Sumitra Mahajan was born in a Vaishya family to Usha and Purushottam Sathe in Chiplun, Maharashtra. She received her MA and LLB from Indore University after marrying Jayant Mahajan of Indore. Sumitra Mahajan's hobbies include reading, music, drama and cinema as well as an enthusiasm for singing. She has acknowledged the 18th century social reformer Ahilyabai Holkar as the inspirational figure throughout her life.
Political career
She ran for the first time and won the Lok Sabha elections in 1989, against former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Prakash Chandra Sethi. She has brought many projects for Indore from Railways, Aviation, Urban Development Ministry. She is known for simplicity, honesty and clean politics. She has a clean track record and has always maintained distances from Special Interest Group. She is popularly known as Tai, among people of her constituency.
Positions held
1984-85: Deputy Mayor, Municipal Corporation, Indore 1985: Elected to 9th Lok Sabha 1990-93: Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare President, Mahila Morcha, Bharatiya Janata Party, Madhya Pradesh 1991: Re-elected to 10th Lok Sabha 1991-92: Member, Joint Committee for 73rd Constitution Amendment Bill 1991-93: Member, Joint Committee for Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Bill, 1991 1991-97: Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Communications 1992-93 Vice-President, BJP, Madhya Pradesh 1993-1995 PRESIDENT,BJP,INDIA 1995-96: Secretary, BJP, Parliamentary Board and Chairman, Parliamentary Board, Madhya Pradesh 1996: Re-elected to 11th Lok Sabha 1996-98: Secretary, BJP 1997: Member, Committee on Public Accounts 1998: Re-elected to 12th Lok Sabha 1998 onwards: General-Secretary, BJP 1998-99: Convenor, Sub-Committee on Drug Control, Committee on Human Resource Development Member, Committee on Human Resource Development and its Sub-Committee-I on Value-based Education Member, Joint Committee on the Empowerment of Women and its Sub-Committee on Appraisal of Laws relating to Women—Criminal Laws Member, Committee on Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Human Resource Development 1999: Re-elected to 13th Lok Sabha October 1999 - June 2002: Union Minister of State, Ministry of Human Resource Development July 2002 - May 2003: Union Minister of State, Ministry of Communication & Information Technology 24 May 2003 - May 2004: Union Minister of State, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas 2004: Re-elected to 14th Lok Sabha 2004-2009: Member, General Purposes Committee Chairperson, Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment Member, Panel of Chairmen 2005: Prabhari, Mahilla Morcha, BJP Member, Consultative Committee on Civil Aviation 5 August 2007 - May 2009: Chairperson, Standing Committee on Social Justice & Empowerment 2009: Re-elected to 15th Lok Sabha June 2009: Member, Panel of Chairmen 31 August 2009: Chairperson, Standing Committee on Rural Development 23 September 2009: Member, Committee on Empowerment of Women 2014: Re-elected to 16th Lok Sabha In February, Sumitra Mahajan was included in the LIMCA book of records for being first Indian woman to represent the same Lok Sabha constituency on the same party ticket eight times in a row.
Speaker of the Lok Sabha
On 6 June 2014, Mahajan was unanimously elected as the Speaker of the 16th Lok Sabha. She had earlier worked as a member of the 'Panel of Chairmen' in the Lok Sabha. She took the step of suspending 25 Congress MPs for five days from House for indiscipline in the House.
