Smriti Irani gets Women and Child Development, Textiles ministries

Earlier a Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat, Irani has held various portfolios in the first Modi government.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Smriti Irani became the Minister of Women and Child Development and Textiles Minister under PM Narendra Modi’s new Cabinet.

This is first time Smriti Irani has won a Lok Sabha election.(Ajay Aggarwal/HT PHOTO)

Irani is the giant-killer of Amethi, having defeated Congress president Rahul Gandhi in his family bastion by around 55,000 votes.

This is the first time she has won a Lok Sabha election, although she contested on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket from Amethi in 2014 too.

Earlier a Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat, the 43-year-old has held various portfolios in the first Modi government, including Information & broadcasting, human resource development and textiles.

In the middle of the 2019 Lok Sabha campaign, the Congress targeted her over her educational qualifications, but she was undeterred.

Before joining politics, she was a television actress, best known for her role as a housewife in the teleserial, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. Asked about the big takeaway from her victory in Amethi, she had quipped, “The big message, I think, is that one should never mess with a housewife!” But she added that the real challenge was to “deliver on expectations”.