At a Glance: Unmarried politicians of India

Considering the number of Indian politicians who have climbed the ladder of success without a companion/ mate, can it be said that single-hood is the secret of their success?There is no straight answer to this question but it seems Indians are favoring single leaders. The reason could probably lie in the fact that Indian denizens are fed up with nepotism and corruption that is so rampant.Prime Minister Narendra Modi had once said that he was the right man to lead the country because he didn't have a family and therefore, there is nobody for whom he would indulge in corrupt activities.Nevertheless, it may also be noted that the country's poorest Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has a spouse. He donates his CM salary and allowances to his party, which pays him Rs 5000 as subsistence allowance. Hence single or not, the will to remain uncorrupt lies within the leader and not on his marital status.Here we have a list of some imminent politicians who are still bachelors/ spinsters.Mamata BanerjeeMamata Banerjee is the incumbent Chief Minister of West Bengal. She founded the party All India Trinamool Congress in 1997 and became its chairperson, after separating from the Indian National Congress.In 2011 Banerjee pulled off a landslide victory for the TMC- Congress alliance in West Bengal by defeating the 34-year old Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front government, until then the world's longest-serving democratically-elected communist government.She is also unmarried and claimed in her public meetings that she has dedicated her entire life to the people of West Bengal and has no time for thinking about herself.Mamata earlier started her political career with the Congress in the 1970s and went on to become the General Secretary of the “Mahila Congress.Banerjee previously served as the Minister of Railways twice and was also the first woman Railway Minister of India, first woman minister Minister of Coal, and first woman Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Department of Youth Affairs and Sports and Women and Child Development. Manohar Lal KhattarManohar Lal Khattar, the first time MLA who was a dedicated RSS pracharak once upon a time, was sworn in as the new Chief Minister of Haryana on October 26. Khattar is known to be Prime Minister Narendra Modi's right-hand man in Haryana.His selection was viewed as a major turning point for the BJP in the state as he will be the 4th non-Jat to lead Haryana in the past 48 year's history and also the 1st in last 18 years.Manohar Lal Khattar, 60, is known for keeping a low profile in the party and is known to be a tough task master.Manohar Lal Khattar contested his maiden assembly elections from Karnal constituency of Haryana and won by a margin of 63,000 votes.Khattar was born on May 5, 1954 in Haryana to Harbans Lal in Haryana. The roots of Khattar's family are in West Punjab, now in Pakistan.Being dedicated to the RSS he remained unmarried.Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti is a politician from Bhartiya Janata Party and has joined Modi Government as a minister of state in November 2014. She contested and won from Fatehpur Lok Sabha constituency in 2014.In 2012, she had won Hamirpur seat in UP Assembly elections. She is regarded as a leader who helped BJP make inroads among the Dalit and backward classes in the politically-crucial state of Uttar Pradesh.Born in 1967, Jyoti had unsuccessfully contested on a BJP ticket in the 2002 and 2007 Assembly elections before going on to pull off a victory in 2012.She was the only woman among the 21 members inducted into Modi's council of ministers.Uma BhartiUma Bharti is the Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation. She is also a social/political activist hailing from the state of Madhya Pradesh. She became involved with the Bhartiya Janata Party when she contested the elections in 1984 but lost eventually.Uma Bharti later bounced back to successfully contest the Khajuraho seat in 1989 and also the Bhopal seat in 1999. During Atal Bihari Vajpayee's (the then Prime Minster) tenure she held many important state/cabinet portfolios including the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports and Human Resource Development (HRD).Bharti was one of the most prominent leaders of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement of the 1980s and 1990s organised by the BJP and the Vishva Hindu Parishad.Bharti was made the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh in 2003. In August 2004, after only a year in office, an arrest warrant was issued against Uma Bharti in connection with the 1994 Hubli riots, forcing her resignation. JayalalithaaThis actor-turned politician is still a spinster. She was a popular Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu till her arrest. She became the first incumbent chief minister in India to be disqualified from holding office due to conviction in a disproportionate assets case on 27 September 2014.Jayalalithaa is fondly called ‘Amma' by her supporters. She has been the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu four times. Her single status comes in very handy for her whenever she tries to underline the dynastic politics of DMK dominated by Karunanidhi's family members.Jayalalithaa started her career as a film actress in the Tamil film industry having appeared in many Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films. Apart from that she also appeared in a few Hindi films. She joined the AIADMK back in 1982 and has since been actively involved in state politics. Her first term as CM was in 1991 when she was sworn-in as Tamil Nadu's youngest CM.K.N. GovindacharyaK.N. Govindacharya was an eminent RSS Pracharak. He was once closely associated with the Bhartiya Janata Party but now he is an environmental activist, social activist, political activist and a thinker. He rose to prominence with Jayaprakash Narayan's “Sampoorna Kranti” (total revolution) movement.He had an important role to play in the JP Movement. In 1988 he was inducted into the BJP. On being drafted into the BJP, Govindacharya called for the Swadeshi and Hindutva revival and also served as the General Secretary of the party till 2000. He was later forced to quit the BJP.He is a staunch critic of the BJP now as much as he is a critic of the Indian National Congress.Rahul GandhiRahul Gandhi is the Vice-President of the Indian National Congress (INC) party and the Chairperson of the Indian Youth Congress and the National Students Union of India. Gandhi served as a general secretary in the All India Congress Committee and represents Amethi as its Member of Parliament (MP). He is the second-highest ranked member of the Congress Working Committee.Gandhi comes from the politically influential Nehru–Gandhi family. He is son of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Late Rajiv Gandhi.According to a poll in 2010, Rahul Gandhi had been voted as “India's most eligible bachelor”. Although one of the most high profile bachelor politicians, his relationship with Veronique of Venezuela has been subject of intense media speculation since 2004.Gandhi led the INC campaign in the 2014 Indian general elections in which the INC suffered its worst electoral result in its history, winning only 44 seats compared to 206 seats won previously in the 2009 general elections.MayawatiMayawati can easily be termed as ‘the dalit queen' of Indian politics. She has not married till date.Mayawati is a former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. She is known for working towards the upliftment of the Dalit community in India. Mayawati currently heads the Bahujan Samaj Party which represents the Dalits.Mayawati, also known as “Behenji”, meaning elder sister, completed four terms as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh but lost out to rivals Samajwadi Party in 2012. She is also infamous for amassing personal wealth during her tenure as CM.Mayawati was born on 15 January 1956 at Shrimati Sucheta Kriplani Hospital, New Delhi in a Dalit family. Her father, Prabhu Das, was a post office employee at Badalpur, Gautam Buddha Nagar. The sons in the family were sent to private schools, while the daughters went to “low-performing government schools”Mayawati studied at Kalindi Women's College and also obtained her LLB from the Campus Law Centre (DU). While she prepared for Civil Services, Dalit politician Kanshi Ram visited her family home in 1977. Ram told her: “I can make you such a big leader one day that not one but a whole row of IAS officers will line up for your orders.”Mayawati's rise from humble beginnings has been called a “miracle of democracy” by former Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao.Naveen PatnaikNaveen Patnaik is the incumbent Chief Minister of Odisha. He is the son of Biju Patnaik who was the former Chief Minister of Odisha. Following in his father's footsteps, Naveen entered politics in 1997 (which was the year of his father's death) and founded the Biju Janata Dal in 1998.Though being laughted at initially for being unable to speak the local language, Naveen later amassed huge support in Odisha for his stand against corruption.Naveen Patnaik was felicitated by the United Nations (UN) for an effort to evacuate nearly a million people ahead of tropical storm, Cyclone Phailin that made a landfall on coastal Odisha in October 2013.Agatha SangmaAgatha K. Sangma is a former Member of Parliament of India. She represented the Tura constituency of Meghalaya following the 2009 parliamentary election as a candidate of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).She was the youngest Minister of State in the UPA II. Agatha Sangma was born in New Delhi to P. A. Sangma, the former speaker of the Lok Sabha, and Soradini K. Sangma. She was brought up in West Garo Hills, Meghalaya.She received her LLB degree from Pune University and later joined the bar in Delhi High Court. She did her Masters in Environmental Management from Nottingham University, UK.Agatha Sangma is a lawyer, an environmentalist, an amateur photographer.