Renu Devi is an Indian politician and one of the two current Deputy Chief Ministers of Bihar. She is the first woman to be appointed as Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar. She was elected MP from the Bettiah constituency in Bihar four times (2000-2015 and then 2020-present).
Wiki/Biography
Renu Devi was born on Sunday, November 1, 1959 (61 years old in 2020) in West Champalambetia, Bihar. In 1977, she completed her intermediate education from MDDM College, Muzaffarpur, Bihar.
Family and caste
Renu Devi belongs to the Noniya community, which is classified as Extremely Backward Castes (EBC) in Bihar.
Parents and siblings
Her father Krishna Prasad is a junior engineer in the Bihar Irrigation and Water Resources Department. Her mother is associated with the RSS.
Husband and children
In 1973, she married Durga Prasad, an engineer from Calcutta. He died in 1979, just six years after their marriage. She and her husband had two children, a son and a daughter.
Political career
Renu Devi’s political career began in 1988 when she joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a member of the party’s women’s wing, the BJP Mahila Morcha. In 1995, she contested the first legislative assembly elections from the Nautam constituency in Bihar on behalf of the BJP but lost. Thereafter, in the next legislative assembly elections in Bihar in 2000, the BJP fielded Renu Devi to represent her hometown of Bettiah. The decision was a success for both the BJP and Renu Devi as she won the seat by a wide margin. She served as MLA for three consecutive terms until 2015. From 2005 to 2009, she served as the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture of Bihar in the Nitish Kumar cabinet. In 2014, the BJP appointed her as the party’s national vice president and she served in the post until 2020. In 2015, she lost to Madan Mohan Tiwari of the Indian National Congress. She reclaimed the Bettiah seat in the 2020 Bihar Legislative Assembly elections and was elected as Bettiah MLA for the fourth time, defeating Indian National Congress candidate Madan Mohan Tiwari by a margin of 18,000 votes. With the victory came a major breakthrough in her career when she was appointed as the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar by the National Democratic Alliance government along with Takishore Prasad. On November 16, 2020, she was sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar.
Besides being deputy chief minister, Renu Devi also holds the portfolios of Panchayati Raj, development of backward classes, ECB and industrial affairs.
dispute
Penalised for “overstaying” in government bungalow
In July 2023, Renu Devi and several other BJP MPs who were ministers in the NDA government in Bihar were fined for exceeding the permitted stay in the ministerial bungalow. Despite being allotted housing as legislators, they continued to live in the ministerial residence. As a result, Renu Devi was fined Rs 1.26 lakh for her behavior.
net worth
Renu Devi’s net worth is Rs 3.5 crore.
address
Sakin, Lal Bazar Near-Power House, Bettiah, District-West Champaran, Bihar
Facts/Trivia
- Renu Devi grew up surrounded by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) members. According to her, there was a small RSS office in her maternal grandfather’s house in Muzaffarpur between 1935 and 1972.
- As a social activist, Renu Devi has long worked for the welfare of women in North Bihar and Champalam district of Bihar, even after entering politics.
- In the 1980s, Bihar police arrested her during the Ram temple construction movement.
- After her husband’s death in 1979, Renu worked in a private company for two years before taking up social activism.
- Renu Devi had faced two criminal cases but was not convicted.
- Political experts believe that the appointment of Renu Devi as the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar is an experiment by the BJP to expand its voter base among women and backward groups.
- Renu Devi owns a Mahindra Scorpio registered in her own name.
- As an MP from Bihar, she gets a basic salary of Rs 2.4 lakh per year.
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education