Urdu poetry (Urdu: اردو شاعری Urdu Shayari) is a rich tradition of poetry and has many different types and forms. Borrowing much from the Persian language, it is today an important part of Pakistani and North Indian culture.

Like other languages, the history of Urdu poetry shares origins and influences with other linguistic traditions within the Urdu-Hindi-Hindustani mix. Literary figures as far back as Kabir (1440–1518 CE) and even Amir Khusro (1253-1325 CE) inspired later Urdu poets, and served as intellectual and linguistic sources. Meer, Dard, Ghalib, Anis, Dabeer, Iqbal, Zauq, Josh, Jigar, Faiz, Firaq and Syed Shmad Shah (Ahmad Faraz) are among the greatest poets of Urdu. The tradition is centered in the subcontinent. Following the Partition of India in 1947, it found major poets and scholars residing primarily in modern Pakistan. Mushairas (or poetic expositions) are today held in metropolitan areas worldwide.

Forms of Urdu poetry[link]

The principal forms of Urdu poetry are:^[1]

• Ghazal, is a set of two liner couplets, which strictly should end with the same rhyme and should be within one of the predefined meters of Ghazals.There has to be minimum of five couplets to form a Ghazal. Couplets may or may not have same thought. It is one of the most difficult forms of poetry as there are many strict parameters that one needs to abide by while writing Ghazal.
• Qasida, a kind of ode, often panegyric on a benefactor, sometimes a satire, sometimes a poem dealing with an important event. As a rule it is longer than ghazal, but it follows the same system of rhyme.^[1]
• Marsiya (or elegy), is nearly always on the death of Hasan and Husain and their families, but occasionally on the death of relatives and friends. It is usually in six-lined stanzas with the rhyme aaaabb. The recitation of these elegies in the first ten days of Muharram is one of the greatest event in Muslim life. A fully developed marsiya is always an epic. The famous marsia writers who inherited the tradition of Mir Anis among his successive generations are Mir Nawab Ali 'Munis', Dulaha Sahab 'Uruj', Mustafa Meerza urf Piyare Sahab 'Rasheed', Syed Muhammad Mirza Uns, Ali Nawab 'Qadeem', Syed Sajjad Hussain "Shadeed" Lucknavi, Allama, Dr.Syed Ali Imam Zaidi, "Gauher" Luckhnavi the(great grandson of Mir Babber Ali Anis).
• Masnavi, in the majority of cases a poetic romance. It may extend to several thousand lines, but generally is much shorter. A few masnavis deal with ordinary domestic and other occurrences. Mir and Sauda wrote some of this kind. They are always in heroic couplets, and the common metre is bacchic tetrameter with an iambus for last foot. The Religious masnavi Histori of Islam (Tarikh-e-Islam Az Quran) written by Dr. Syed Ali Imam Zaidi Gauher Lucknavi.^[1]
• Tazkira, biographical anthology, almost always of poetry alone. This is often a mere collection of names with a line or two of information about each poet, followed by specimen of his composition. On the other hand it may be the history of Urdu poetry with copious illustrative extracts. The best tazkiras give biographical details, but fail in literary criticism, and we get little idea of style or poetical power, still less of contents of poems. Even the large anthologies do not systematically review an author's work. Most of them have the names in alphabetical order, but one or two prefer historical order. The majority quote only lyrics, and the quotations, usually chosen at random, do not illustrate poetry.^[1]
• Nazm Urdu nazm is a major part of Urdu poetry. From Nazeer Akarabadi, Iqbal, Josh, Firaq, Akhtarul Iman to down the line Noon Meem Rashid, Faiz, Ali Sardar Jafri and Kaifi Azmi. They have covered common life, philosophical thinking, national issues and the precarious predecament of individual human being.As a distinct form of Nazm many Urdu poets influenced by English and other European poets took to writing sonnets in Urdu language.^[2] Azmatullah Khan (1887-1923) is believed to have introduced this format to Urdu Literature.^[3] The other renowned Urdu poets who wrote sonnets were Akhtar Junagarhi, Akhtar Sheerani, Noon Meem Rashid, Mehr Lal Soni Zia Fatehabadi, Salaam Machhalishahari and Wazir Agha.

Collection forms of Urdu poetry[link]

The principal collection forms of Urdu poetry are:^[1]

• Diwan, a collection of poems, chiefly gazals.^[1]
• Kulliyat, literally a complete collection of poems, but often applied to any collection containing poems of various kinds. Thus, Akbar Allahabadi published three kulliyats.^[1]

Formation[link]

Urdu poetry forms itself with following basic ingredients:

• Bait (بیت)
• Bait-ul-Ghazal (بیت الغزل)
• Beher (بحر)
• Diwan (دیوان)
• Husn-E-Matla (حسنِ مطلع)
• Kalam (کلام)
• Kulyat (کلیات)
• Maqta (مقطع)
• Matla (مطلع)
• Mavra (ماوراء)
• Misra (مصرع)
• Mushaira (مشاعرہ)
• Qaafiyaa (قافیہ)
• Radif (ردیف)
• Sher (شعر)
• Shayar (شاعر)
• Shayari (شاعری)
• Tah-Tul-Lafz (تحت اللفظ)
• Takhallus (تخلص)
• Tarannum (ترنم)
• Triveni (تریوینی)

Genres[link]

The major genres of poetry found in Urdu are:

• Doha (دوہا)
• Fard (فرد)
• Geet (گیت)
• Ghazal (غزل), as practiced by many poets in the Arab tradition. Mir, Ghalib, Dagh are well-known composers of ghazal.
• Hamd (حمد)
• Hazal (ہزل)
• Hijv (ہجو)
• Kafi (کافی)
• Madah (مدح)
• Manqabat (منقبت)
• Marsia (مرثیہ)
• Masnavi (مثنوی)
• Munajat (مناجات)
• Musaddas (مسدس)
• Mukhammas (مخمس)
• Naat (نعت)
• Nazm (نظم)
• Noha (نوحہ)
• Qasida (قصیدہ)
• Qat'ã (قطعہ)
• Qawwali (قوالی)
• Rubai (رباعی) (a.k.a. Rubayyat or Rubaiyat) (رباعیات)
• Salam (سلام)
• Sehra (سہرا)
• Shehr a'ashob (شہر آشوب)
• Soz (سوز)
• Wasokht (وسوخت)

Foreign forms such as the sonnet, azad nazm or (Free verse) and haiku have also been used by some modern Urdu poets.

[edit] Pen names (Takhallus)

In the Urdu poetic tradition, most poets use a pen name called the Takhallus (تخلص) . This can be either a part of a poet's given name or something else adopted as an identity. The traditional convention in identifying Urdu poets is to mention the takhallus at the end of the name. The word takhallus^[4] is derived from Arabic, meaning "ending". This is because in the ghazal form, the poet would usually incorporate his or her pen name into the final couplet (maqta) of each poem.

Scripts used in poetry[link]

In Pakistan, Urdu poetry is written in the standard Nasta'liq calligraphy style of the Perso-Arabic script. However, in India, where Urdu poetry is very popular, the Perso-Arabic is often found transliterated into the Devanāgarī script, as an aid for those Hindī-speakers, who can comprehend Urdu, but cannot read the Perso-Arabic script. With the dawn of the internet and globalisation, this poetry is often found written in Roman Urdu today.

Example[link]

The following is a verse from an Urdu ghazal by Sher Khwaja Mir Dard:

Roman Urdu:

dosto dekhā tamāśhā yahāN kā bas.

tum raho ab hum to apne ghar chale

English translation:

Friends, I've seen the spectacle of this place- enough!

You stay here; I'm heading home.

See also[link]

Poetry portal

• Bait Bazi, a game using Urdu poetry
• Maulvi Abdul Haq - father of Modern Urdu
• Dr. Rafiq Hussain was the first scholar in undivided India to obtain a Ph.D in Urdu Poetry of Allama Iqbal in 1943.
• List of Urdu poets
• Persian and Urdu
• Progressive Writers' Movement
• Rekhta
• Shayari
• Urdu Informatics
• Urdu literature

References[link]

External links[link]

• Indiasurfing.com: List of Urdu Poets
• Indianchild.com: Urdu Literature

• Urdu/Hindi Today

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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2012)

Rahat Indori
Born	Rahat (1950-01-01) January 1, 1950 (age 62) Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India
Occupation	Urdu Poet, Lyricist
Nationality	Indian
Citizenship	Indian
Education	MA, Phd
Genres	Ghazal, Nazm, Geet
Spouse(s)	Seema
Children	Shibli, Faisal, Satlaj
Influenced Urdu poetry
www.rahatindori.co.in

Rahat Indori (Urdu: ڈاکٹر راحت اندوری ) (Hindi: डॉ. राहत इन्दोरी ) (born January 1, 1950) is an eminent Urdu language poet and a bollywood lyricist.^[1] Prior to this he was a pedagogist of Urdu literature at Indore University.

Early life and education[link]

He was born on January 1, 1950 in Indore to Rafatullah Qureshi, a cloth mill worker, and his wife Maqbool Un Nisa Begum. He was their fourth child. He did his schooling from Nutan School Indore from where he completed his Higher Secondary. He completed his graduation from Islamia Karimia College Indore^[2] in 1973 and has passed his MA in Urdu literature from Barkatullah University^[3] Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) in 1975. Equally competent in prose and poetry, Rahat was awarded a PhD in Urdu literature from the Bhoj University of Madhya Pradesh in 1985 for his thesis titled Urdu Main Mushaira.^{[citation needed]}

Career[link]

He started teaching Urdu literature in IK College, Indore. According to his students he was the best lecturer in the college.^{[citation needed]} He became very busy with Mushairas and started receiving invitations from all over India and abroad. He quickly became a well-known figure in the world of Urdu literature.^{[citation needed]} He was not only good at studies but was also the captain of the football and hockey team at school and college level. He recited his first sher in his college days when he was only 19. In those days his style of writing was surprising, advanced and had a freshness to it.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

Rahat has two elder sisters, Tehzib and Taqreeb, an elder brother, Aquil, and a younger brother, Adil. Rahat’s early days were difficult as the family's financial condition was not strong.^{[citation needed]} He started working as a sign-painter at the early age of ten and later became the busiest signboard painter of Indore.^{[citation needed]} Clients were willing to wait for months to get their boards painted by Rahat. Many of his signboards for shops can still be seen in Indore.^{[citation needed]} He continues to design book covers even today and, in spite of his busy schedule, he manages to find some time for painting, as he has not given up his love of colours.^{[citation needed]} He had started attending Nashist and small gatherings in Indore.

In 1972, his maternal uncle Hakim Hanfi, who was working with Municipal Corporation in Dewas, arranged for him to recite his poems in an All India Mushaira held at Dewas.^{[citation needed]} That was his first All India Mushaira and it led to increased popularity.

On 27 May 1976, he married Seema, the daughter of Kotwal Ahmed Hussain and Niyazan Bee of Dewas. The have three children: Shibli (born 27 November 1978) Faisal (26 June 1980); and Satlaj (11 March 1982).^{[citation needed]}

Performance[link]

He has travelled widely internationally to recite poetry.^{[citation needed]}

Awards - Some of the Awards amongst countless Honours - Honour, Embassy of India, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Honour, Jung News Paper Publications, Karachi, Pakistan - Mohd. Ali Taj Award, MP Urdu Academy, Bhopal - Maulana Mohd Ali Johar Award - Jamia old Boys Association, New Delhi - Adeeb International Award - Sahir Cultural Academy, Ludhiana - Haq Banarasi Award - Anjuman Nawa e Haq, Banaras - Sahitya Saraswat, Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, Prayag - Indira Gandhi Award, National Federation, Haldwani - Pradesh Ratna, Hindi Sahitya Parishad, Bhopal - National Integration Award, Indian Cultural Society, New Delhi - UP Hindi Urdu Sahitya Award, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh, Lukhnow - Rajiv Gandhi Literary Award, Hum sab Ek Hain, Bhopal - Award of Excellence in Urdu Poetry, Social Educational & Welfare Association (SEWA), Mumbai - Sadbhaawna Award, Bazm E Gango Jaman, Ujjain - Aafaq Haider Award, Shamim Memon Memorial Foundation, Varanasi - Faani o Shakil Award, Dr. Urmilesh Jan Chetna Samiti, Badaun - Nishwar Wahidi Award, National Book Fare Trust, Kanpur - Netaji Subhash Alankaran, Subhash Manch, Indore - Dr. Zakir Hussain Award, Delhi Govt., New Delhi - Nishan E Aijaz, Dr. Shakil Welfare Educational Society, Bareilly - Kaifi Aazmi Award, Bhartiya Rashtriya Ekta Parishad, Varanasi - Urdu Award, Jhansi - Mirza Ghalib Award, Jhansi.^[4][5]

Filmography[link]

As a lyricist[link]

Kumar Vishwas
Occupation	Professor, Poet, Associate Professor
Nationality	Indian
Citizenship	Indian
Education	M.A., PhD., DLit
Genres	Romantic Poetry
Notable award(s)	Hindi-Punjabi Award Committee, Uttar Pradesh “Sahitya Shree-2006” Geet Shree 2010
www.kumarvishwas.com

Kumar Vishwas' (डॉ. कुमार विश्वास ) (also spelt as Vishvas or Vishwas) (born 10 February 1970) is a renowned Hindi Poet and a professor of Hindi Literature from Pilkhuwa[1], Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.

Early life and education[link]

Kumar Vishwas was born on 10 February 1970, in Pilkhuwa, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh in a Gaur Brahmin family. He is the youngest among four brothers and a sister. He started his schooling from Lala Ganga Sahay School, Pilkhuwa where he spent a part of his childhood. His father Dr. Chandra Pal Sharma was Lecturer in R.S.S. Degree College, Pilkhuwa affiliated to Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut and his mother Smt. Rama Sharma is a home maker. After completing his intermediate from Rajputana Regiment Inter College, Pilkhuwa, his father wanted him to be an Engineer, but he had a passion for Poetry right from the childhood. He took no interest in engineering and decided to make career in the field of Poetry. He did Post Graduation in Hindi Literature.

Career[link]

Vishvas started his career as a professor in the year 1994 from Rajasthan. He has been teaching Hindi Literature to higher class students of Lala Lajpat Rai College for the last sixteen years.^[1]

Works and achievements[link]

Vishvas is a Poet of Hindi language. He is a poet of Shringara-Ras (Romantic Genre).^[2] He has participated in several Kavi sammelan and is a very renowned poet.

His fan communities on social networking websites like Orkut,^[3] and Facebook^[4] have largest number of fans as compared to other Hindi poets.^{[citation needed]} Also, his videos on YouTube have in excess of 40 million views.^[5] His website^[6] is a frequently visited website among youths.^{[citation needed]}

Dr Kumar Vishvas has written the 'Kul-Geet' or the University Anthem of Chaudhary Charan Singh University.^[7]

Besides being a known face among Hindi-knowing people across the world as a Poet, Dr Kumar Vishvas has been involving himself in several Social works. He is an active and renowned member of the Civil Society. He has been an integral part of Veteran Social Leader Anna Hazare's 'India against corruption' mission along with Mr Arvind Kejriwal and Mr Manish Sisodia for which he was arrested on 16 August 2011.^[8]

Performances[link]

Vishvas has been performing regularly in Kavi sammelan all over India and abroad. The list includes Thapar University, BIT SINDRI, Sindri , INDIAN SCHOOL OF MINES, Dhanbad, Jamia Hamdard University, IIIT Hyderabad, RKGIT Ghaziabad, NIFT Gandhinagar, IIT Guwahati, NIT ROURKELA, IIT Kanpur, IIT Roorkee,^[9] IIT Kharagpur,^[10] IIT Bubaneshwar,^[11] Jamia Millia Islamia New Delhi,^[12] DA-IICT Gandhinagar, B.J. Medical College Ahmadabad , Sri Ram Murti Smarak College of Engineering and Technology Bareilly, Teerthanker Mahaveer Medical College Moradabad, MNIT Jaipur, Management Development Institute Gurgaon, Fore School of Management New Delhi, NIT Surat, B.S.Anangpuria Institute of Technology and Management Faridabad,^[13] KIIT University Bhubaneswar,^[14] NSIT Delhi, National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra IIITM Gwalior, CDGI INDORE,^[15] Jawaharlal Nehru University Delhi,^[16] MNNIT Allahabad,^[17] NIT Patna,^[18][19] IIM Lucknow,^[20] NIT Jalandhar,^[21] NIT Trichy,^[22] NIT Durgapur, BITS, Pilani,^[23] LNCT Bhopal,^[24] MERI Kolkata, [(Maharaja Sayaji Rao University ,Baroda|http://www.msubaroda.ac.in/)] B.I.T. Sindri,^[25] IET Lucknow, SSGPURC hoshiarpur, JIIT, Noida^[26], KNIT Sultanpur and MITS, Gwalior^[27], Institute of Technology- BHU and Babasaheb Naik College Of Engineering Pusad.(Maharashtra)and several other institutions across India.

He has also been a part of corporate celebration across India.^{[citation needed]}

Besides performing in almost all parts of India, Dr Kumar Vishvas has also performed in countries like USA,^[28] Dubai,^[29] Singapore^[30], Japan ^[31] Muscat, Abu Dhabi, Nepal etc.

Awards[link]

• Kavya – Kumar in 1994 by Dr. Kunwar Baichain Kavya samman avam puruskaar samiti^[32]
• Dr. Suman Alankarna in 2004 by Sahitya Bharti, Unnao.^[32]
• Sahitya Shree - 2006 by Hindi-Punjabi Award Academy.^[33]
• Dr Urmilesh "Geet Shree" Samman, 2010 by Dr Urmilesh Jan Chetna Samiti, Badaun.^[34]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (May 2010)

Nana Patekar
Born	Vishwanath Patekar (1951-01-01) 1 January 1951 (age 61) Murud-Janjira, Maharashtra, India
Occupation	Actor, Filmmaker
Years active	1978 – present
Spouse	Neelakanti Patekar
Parents	Dinkar Patekar Sanjana Patekar

Vishwanath "Nana" Patekar (born 1 January 1951) is an Indian actor and filmmaker.

Biography[link]

Born Vishwanath Patekar in Murud-Janjira, Maharashtra, to Dinkar Patekar (a painter) and his wife Sanjanabai Patekar. He is an alumnus of the Sir J.J. Institute of Applied Art, Mumbai.^[1]

Career[link]

He acted in movies such as Gaman (1978), Mohre (1987) and Salaam Bombay! (1988) and was noticed by the mainstream Bollywood industry for his portrayal of the villain in the 1989 film, Parinda, for which he won his first National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was also awarded the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award for the role. He won the Filmfare Best Villain Award in 1992 for Angaar.

In 1994, he won the National Film Award for Best Actor for his performance in Krantiveer (1994). He also won the Filmfare Award and the Star Screen Awards in the best actor category.

Patekar has played many types of roles. He has played the occasional villain but been a hero in most of his films. He played a truant, gambling son in Krantiveer (1994), a wife beater in Agni Sakshi (1996), a deaf father to Manisha Koirala in Khamoshi: The Musical (1996) and a schizophrenic in Wajood (1998). In the movie Ab Tak Chappan (2005) he plays a police officer who is a sharpshooter. Patekar has also done comic roles in Welcome (2007) in which he plays a powerful crime lord who once desired to be an actor in films.

He turned director with his movie Prahaar: The Final Attack co-starring Madhuri Dixit. His other films as an actor include Hu Tu Tu and Bluff Master. For his performance in Apaharan, he received the Filmfare Best Villain Award as well as the Star Screen Award Best Villain. He is going to be in Sangeeth Sivan's next film, which is a remake of the Telugu film Athadu (2005) and as the character Anjaneya Prasad (CBI officer), which was originally played by Prakash Raj.

Patekar did some playback singing in the films Yeshwant (1997), Wajood (1998) and Aanch (2003).

He has an honorary Captain's rank from Indian Army. He underwent training for his role as a Army officer in Prahaar and was thus awarded the rank. He joined the Territorial Army in the early 1990s.^{[citation needed]} At the age of 54, he took up the sport of rifle shooting. He qualified for the G.V. Mavlankar Shooting Championship.^[2]

He has also acted in few Marathi movies and plays. He is known to donate generously to the poor.^[3][4]

Nana Patekar starred in the Marathi film Deool, released on 4 November 2011.

Awards[link]

Patekar is the only actor ever to win Filmfare Awards in the Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Villain categories.^[5]

Filmography[link]

Actor[link]

Director[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Nana Patekar at the Internet Movie Database

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nana Patekar

• Nana's interview

Sushma Swaraj
Leader of Opposition (Lok Sabha)
Incumbent
Assumed office 18 December 2009
Preceded by	Lal Krishna Advani
Constituency	Vidisha (Madhya Pradesh)
Minister of Information and Broadcasting
In office 30 September 2000 – 29 January 2003
Prime Minister	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Chief Minister of Delhi
In office 13 October 1998 – 3 December 1998
Minister of Information and Broadcasting and Telecommunications
In office 19 March 1998 – 12 October 1998
Prime Minister	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Minister of Information and Broadcasting
In office 16 May 1996 – 1 June 1996
Prime Minister	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Haryana State Minister of Education, Food and Civil Supplies
In office 1987–1990
Haryana State Minister of Labour and Employment
In office 1977–1979
Personal details
Born	(1952-02-14) 14 February 1952 (age 60) Palwal, Haryana
Political party	Bharatiya Janata Party
Spouse(s)	Swaraj Kaushal
Residence	New Delhi
Alma mater	Punjab University, Chandigarh
Profession	Lawyer
Military service
Awards	Outstanding Parliamentarian Award in 2004 and 2010

Sushma Swaraj (Hindi: सुष्मा स्वराज pronunciation (help·info)) (born 14 February 1952) is an Indian politician of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)and Member of Parliament. She is currently the Leader of the Opposition in the 15th Lok Sabha. She is a former union cabinet minister of India and a former Chief Minister of Delhi. Also she served as the Chairperson of the BJP's 19 member campaign committee for the 2009 General Elections. She was the first female Chief Minister of Delhi.

Early life[link]

She was born in Palwal, Haryana. She was educated at Sanatan Dharma College, Ambala Cantonment and earned a B.A. degree. She studied LL.B. from the Law Department of Punjab University, Chandigarh. She is an advocate by profession.^[1]

She has been associated with many social and cultural bodies in various capacities. She was President of the Sahitya Sammelan, Haryana for four years.

Political career[link]

Sushma Swaraj began her political career as a student leader in the 1970s, organizing protests against Indira Gandhi's government. She was a member of the Haryana Legislative Assembly from 1977–82 and then from 1987–90. As a Janata Party MLA in Devi Lal's government, she was the Cabinet Minister of Labour and Employment (1977–1979). She joined the BJP in 1980. Under a combined Lok Dal-BJP government led by Devi Lal, she was the Cabinet Minister of Education, Food and Civil Supplies (1987–1990). She was judged Best Speaker of Haryana State Assembly for three consecutive years.

In 1980, 1984, and 1989, she unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from Karnal in Haryana. All three times, she was defeated by the Congress Party's Chiranji Lal Sharma.

She was elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha in 1990. In 1996, she was elected to the 11th Lok Sabha from South Delhi. She was Union Cabinet Minister of Information and Broadcasting in 1996, during the 13-day Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government.

She was re-elected to 12th Lok Sabha for a 2nd term in 1998. Under the second Vajpayee government, she retained the Information and Broadcasting ministry and had additional charge of the Ministry of Telecommunications from 19 March to 12 October 1998.

She left the Union Cabinet from October – December 1998 to serve as the first woman Chief Minister of Delhi. The BJP lost the assembly elections, and she returned to national politics.

In 1999, she took on a high profile as she contested against the Congress party's President, Sonia Gandhi, from the Bellary constituency in Karnatka, which had returned Congress winners since India's independence. The fervent, high-pitched campaign came to an end with the expected loss of Sushma.

She returned to Parliament in April 2000 as a Rajya Sabha member from Uttarakhand.^[2] She was re-inducted into the cabinet as the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, which she held from September 2000 until January 2003. At that time, she was made the Minister of Health and Family Welfare, and also held the post of Minister of Parliamentary Affairs. She held these posts from January 2003 until May 2004, when the National Democratic Alliance government lost elections.

In a heavily publicized and emotionally charged episode following the elections, Sushma Swaraj threatened to shave her head, don a white saree and eat groundnuts (symbolically mourning) if Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born Congress leader, became Prime Minister of India.

She was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha in April 2006 from Madhya Pradesh. She served as the deputy leader of BJP in Rajya Sabha. Speculation ran high that Sushma Swaraj was one of the top contenders to be President of the BJP, following Advani's resignation from that role in late 2005. Rajnath Singh ultimately was elected to that post.

She won the 2009 election to the 15th Lok Sabha from the Vidisha constituency in Madhya Pradesh, on a BJP candidacy, by a highest margin of 4.01 lakh votes. This is her 10th election.

She has been awarded by Outstanding Parliamentarian Award twice.

Leader of the opposition[link]

Sushma Swaraj appointed as leader of the opposition party and replaced Lal Krishna Advani in December 2009 in the 15th Lok Sabha,^[3]

Personal life[link]

She married Swaraj Kaushal Madahar on 13 July 1975 and has a daughter.

Positions held[link]

• 1977–82 and 1987–90 Member, Haryana Legislative Assembly.^[1]
• 1977–79 Cabinet Minister, Labour and Employment, Government of Haryana.^[1]
• 1987–90 Cabinet Minister, Education, Food and Civil Supplies, Government of Haryana.^[1]
• April 1990 Elected to Rajya Sabha
• 1996 Member, Eleventh Lok Sabha
• 16 May-1 June 1996 Union Cabinet Minister, Information and Broadcasting.^[1]
• 1998 Member, Twelfth Lok Sabha (2nd term)
• 19 March-12 Oct.1998 Union Cabinet Minister, Information and Broadcasting and Telecommunications (Additional charge)
• 13 Oct.-3 Dec. 1998 Chief Minister, Delhi
• April 2000 Elected to Rajya Sabha (2nd term)^[4]
• 30 Sept. 2000–29 Jan. 2003 Minister of Information and Broadcasting
• 29 Jan. 2003 – 22 May 2004 Minister of Health and Family Welfare and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs
• April 2006 Re-elected to Rajya Sabha (3rd term)^[5]
• 16 May 2009 Elected to the 15th Lok Sabha.^[1]
• 3 June 2009 Elected as Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.^[1]
• 18 Dec 2009 Sushma Swaraj appointed as leader of the opposition party and replaced Lal Krishna Advani in December 2009.

External links[link]

• Official website of BJP

References[link]