Biography
Narah is a graduate of Gauhati University. [1] She played professional cricket and captained the Assam women's cricket team. [2] [3] She served as the President of the Women's Cricket Association of India (WCAI) and the President of the Assam Women's Cricket Association. [2] [4] She merged the WCAI with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2006 and became a BCCI member. [5] [6] [7] She was also Vice-President of the Assam Cricket Association and the Assam Football Association. [8] [9]
Narah joined the Asom Gana Parishad in 1988,and was elected General Secretary of the party's women's wing,the Asom Mahila Parishad. [2] [10] She joined the Indian National Congress in 1995 after ideological disagreements with the Asom Gana Parishad leadership. [2] [11] She was elected General Secretary and Vice President of the Assam Pradesh Youth Congress in 1996-1997. [12] She was elected President of the Assam Pradesh Youth Congress in 1998. [13] 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. [14] 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. [15] She began lobbying for the construction of an airport at North Lakhimpur,which culminated in 2003 with the inauguration of Lilabari Airport. [16] As a Member of Parliament until 2004,Narah was on the committees for Urban and Rural Development,Libraries,and Communications during the 12th Lok Sabha,and on the committees for Defence,Home Affairs,Civil Aviation,Petroleum and Natural Gas,and Urban and Rural Development during the 13th Lok Sabha. [12]
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. [17] 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. [18] [19] 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. [20] [21] In 2003,Narah was elected to the National Council of the Indian Youth Congress. [22]
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. [4] [23] [24] She lost the election to the Asom Gana Parishad candidate,Arun Kumar Sarmah,who was an incumbent Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament for Assam. [25] [26] 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. [3] [25] [26] [27] [28] 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. [29] She was on the committees for Estimates,Transport,Tourism,Culture,and Information and Broadcasting from 2009 to 2012 during the 15th Lok Sabha. [12]
In 2012,Narah was inducted into the Union Cabinet of India as Minister of State in the Tribal Affairs ministry. [1] In 2013,Narah opposed the Subansiri Lower Dam Hydro Electric Project. [30] Much of Lakhimpur's Bogibeel Bridge was completed by Indian Railways during Narah's tenures as Member of Parliament from 1998 to 2004 and 2009 to 2014, [31] [32] [33] although project delays meant that the bridge was inaugurated in 2019. [34] In 2014,she lost her re-election campaign from Lakhimpur against the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate and state president,Sarbananda Sonowal,who became the Chief Minister after the 2016 Assam Legislative Assembly election. [15] [35] [36] [37] In 2016 Rajya Sabha elections,Narah was elected as a Member of Parliament from Assam. She received 47 votes,the most of any candidate in the Assam Legislative Assembly. [38] [39] She represented Assam in the Rajya Sabha until 2022. [40] She was on the committee for Petroleum and Natural Gas until 2019,and on the committees for Industry and the Development of North Eastern Region until 2022. [12] In 2024,the Indian National Congress did not nominate Narah as the candidate from Lakhimpur. [41]
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. [3] [42] [43] 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. [44] 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 in 1995,and also that their marriage was a "coup against the first right-wing government of the state". [45] [46]
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