Meira Kumar

Meira Kumar
15th Speaker of the Lok Sabha
In office 4 June 2009 – 11 June 2014
President	Pratibha Patil Pranab Mukherjee
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Deputy Speaker	Kariya Munda
Leader of the House	Pranab Mukherjee Sushilkumar Shinde
Preceded by	Somnath Chatterjee
Succeeded by	Sumitra Mahajan
Minister of Water Resources
In office 22 May 2009 – 25 May 2009
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Preceded by	Saifuddin Soz
Succeeded by	Pawan Kumar Bansal
Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment
In office 22 May 2004 – 22 May 2009
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Preceded by	Satyanarayan Jatiya
Succeeded by	Selja Kumari
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
In office 2004–2014
Preceded by	Muni Lall
Succeeded by	Chhedi Paswan
Constituency	Sasaram
In office 1996–1999
Preceded by	Kalka Dass
Succeeded by	Anita Arya
Constituency	Karol Bagh
In office 1985–1989
Preceded by	Chowdhary Girdhari Lal
Succeeded by	Mayawati
Constituency	Bijnor (by-poll)
Personal details
Born	(1945-03-31) 31 March 1945 (age 79) Arrah, Bihar, British India (present day Arrah, Bihar, India)
Political party	Indian National Congress
Other political affiliations	United Progressive Alliance
Spouse	Manjul Kumar ​ (m. 1968)​
Relations	Sumitra Devi (mother-in-law)
Children	3 (1 son and 2 daughters)
Parent	Jagjivan Ram (father) Indrani Devi (mother)
Alma mater	Faculty of Law, University of Delhi

Meira Kumar (born 31 March 1945) is an Indian politician and former diplomat. A member of the Indian National Congress, she was the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment from 2004 to 2009, the Minister of Water Resources for a brief period in 2009. She served as the 15th Speaker of Lok Sabha from 2009 to 2014, being the first woman to hold the post. Kumar became just the second woman to be nominated for president of India by a major political block when she secured the United Progressive Alliance's nomination in 2017.

Prior to being a member of the 15th Lok Sabha, Kumar had been elected earlier to the 8th, 11th, 12th and 14th Lok Sabha. Kumar was the joint presidential candidate by the leading opposition parties for 2017 presidential election and lost the election to the NDA nominee Ram Nath Kovind. Meira Kumar's vote share is the third highest for a losing candidate, that of Neelam Sanjiva Reddy in the 1969 Presidential elections and K. Subba Rao in 1967 Presidential elections.