Biography
Narah is a graduate of Gauhati University. [1] She played professional cricket and captained the Assam state team. [2] She served as the President of the Women's Cricket Association of India and the President of the Assam Women's Cricket Association. [3] After the Women's Cricket Association of India disbanded in 2006,she became a member of the Board of Control for Cricket in India Women's Committee. [4] [5] She was also Vice-President of the Assam Cricket Association and the Assam Football Association. [6] [7]
Narah joined the Asom Gana Parishad in 1988,and was elected General Secretary of the party's women's wing,the Asom Mahila Parishad. [8] [9] She joined the Indian National Congress in 1995 after ideological disagreements with the Asom Gana Parishad leadership. [9] [10] She was elected General Secretary and Vice President of the Assam Pradesh Youth Congress in 1996-1997. [11] She was elected President of the Assam Pradesh Youth Congress in 1998. [12] In 1998,she was elected also to the Lok Sabha from Lakhimpur constituency by defeating the Asom Gana Parishad candidate and incumbent,Arun Kumar Sarmah. [13] She was re-elected from Lakhimpur in 1999,defeating the Asom Gana Parishad candidate,Sarbananda Sonowal,who was the President of the All Assam Students' Union. [14]
As Assam Pradesh Youth Congress President,Narah led an Assam Bandh in November 2000 demanding the imposition of President's rule against the Asom Gana Parishad government of Chief Minister,Prafulla Kumar Mahanta,whose party was a constituent member of the National Democratic Alliance federal government. [15] Between 1997 and 2001,the insurgency in Assam had led to 1548 deaths,including 333 security personnel. The mass-killings of Hindi-speaking migrants by the United Liberation Front of Assam became a catalyst for the bandh. [16] [17] She was imprisoned by the Asom Gana Parishad government,and the federal government had to authorise military operations after another round of mass-killings in December 2000. [18] [19] In 2003,Narah was elected to the National Council of the Indian Youth Congress. [20]
In 2004,Narah was nominated as the candidate for Lakhimpur despite opposition from the Indian National Congress Chief Minister,Tarun Gogoi,and many party MLA's in Lakhimpur constituency. [3] [21] [22] She lost the election to the Asom Gana Parishad candidate,Arun Kumar Sarmah,who was an incumbent Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament for Assam. [23] [24] In 2009,Narah was nominated as the candidate for Lakhimpur despite opposition from the Chief Minister,Tarun Gogoi,and many party MLA's in Lakhimpur constituency. [2] [23] [24] [25] [26] She won the election by defeating the Asom Gana Parishad candidate and incumbent,Arun Kumar Sarmah. After re-entering parliament in 2009,Narah was appointed Deputy Chief Whip of the Congress Parliamentary Party in the Lok Sabha. [27]
In 2012,Narah was inducted into the Union Cabinet of India as Minister of State in the Tribal Affairs ministry. [1] In 2014,she lost her re-election campaign from Lakhimpur against the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate,Sarbananda Sonowal,who became the Chief Minister after the 2016 Assam Legislative Assembly election. [14] In 2016,Narah was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Assam,and represented the state until 2022. [28] In 2024,the Indian National Congress did not nominate Narah as the candidate from Lakhimpur. [29]
Narah —born as Jahanara Choudhary into an Assamese Muslim family in Guwahati's Gandhibasti —is married to Bharat Narah,a six-term member of the Assam Legislative Assembly,and former cabinet minister in the Assam government. [2] [30] The couple married in 1986,and she converted to Hinduism,the religion of her indigenous tribal husband whose Mishing people live mostly in Upper Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. [31] Their marriage has repeatedly come under attack by supporters of the Asom Gana Parishad and the Bharatiya Janata Party,including conspiracy theories that she was a spy who persuaded her husband —an Asom Gana Parishad legislator —to join the Indian National Congress with her 1995,and that their marriage was a "coup against the first right-wing government of the state". [32] [33]
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
