Sushma Swaraj, the politician who once threatened to shave her head

Stepping into the shoes of stalwart LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj acquired a high profile a decade back when she contested against Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in the Lok Sabha polls in Bellary in Karnataka and once threatened to shave her head.

Sushma(58), who sticks to her familiar wide-bordered saris plus her trademark big red bindi and sindoor and a smile that never slips, has carved a niche in the saffron party with effective presentation of her views both inside and outside Parliament.

Married to Swaraj Kaushal, a former Mizoram Governor, the mercurial politician has never hidden her dislike for Sonia, who beat her in Bellary during the 1999 Lok Sabha elections. But despite her loss, Sushma has steadily moved up the party hierarchy.

In a heavily publicized and emotionally charged episode following the 2004 elections when the Congress was set to form the government, Sushma threatened to shave her head, don a white saree and eat groundnuts (symbollically mourning) if Sonia, the Italian-born Congress leader, became prime minister.
    
A prominent woman politician, Swaraj is the first woman Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha when the Congress or alliances led by it was in power.

Born on February 14, 1952. Sushma is currently the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the 15th Lok Sabha.
    
She was born in Ambala Cantonment in Haryana and earned a BA degree. She studied LL.B. from the Law Department of Panjab University, Chandigarh. She married Swaraj Kaushal on July 13, 1975 and has one daughter.
    
An advocate by profession. She began her political career as a student leader in the 1970s, organizing protests against Indira Gandhi's government.

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

Sushma 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 March 19 to October 12, 1998.

Sushma 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 Karnataka, which had returned Congress winners since India's independence. The fervent, high-pitched campaign came to an end with the expected loss of Sushma, Gandhi polled 51.7 percent of the vote, Swaraj coming not too far behind with 44.7 percent.

Sushma 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.

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.
    
Sushma won the 2009 election to the 15th Lok Sabha from the Vidisha constituency in Madhya Pradesh, on a BJP candidacy, by a record margin of 3.89 lakh votes. This is her 10th election.