Nitish Kumar was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the fourth consecutive term on Monday, November 16. BJP’s Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi were also sworn in as deputy chief ministers.
While Nitish Kumar needs no mention, the other two names particularly Renu Devi may not be familiar to many. But her political will and dedication have catapulted her to becoming the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar.
Renu Devi belongs to the Nonia community which is classified as an Extremely Backward Class (EBC) and is considered to be a strong vote bank of Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United.
Renu Devi has for a very long time been heading the BJP's women wing at the state and national level. Her appointment, therefore, is being seen by many as a reward for the role that women voters have played in NDAs victory in the recently concluded state assembly elections.
Born in November 1959 Renu Devi joined the RSS after finishing her school. She worked in various capacities in the organisation and her role largely concerned the Bihar-Uttar Pradesh region.
In 1988 she was made a district coordinator of VHPs Durga Vahini- the women's wing.
The next year she was made the chief of BJP women's wing of the Champaran region. From here she began to gain strength and was soon made the chief of the women's wing of her party's Bihar unit.
In 2014 Renu Devi was made the party's vice-president and she continued to work in the capacity till she was sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar today. She has also been appointed deputy leader of BJP's legislature party.
Renu Devi contested her first election from the Nautan assembly constituency on a BJP ticket in 1995 and lost by a slim margin. She again fought the assembly election in 2000 on a BJP ticket and won by a margin of 10000 votes. She was also appointed as the minister of culture in the Bihar cabinet of 2007.
Renu Devi has been contesting the assembly election from the Bettiah constituency since 2000 and has won all elections barring 2015 in which she lost by a margin of 2000 votes to the Congress candidate.
