Smriti Irani

Actress-turned-politician Smriti Irani is currently the Textiles Minister of India. She also holds the Women and Child Development Ministry.


In 2003, Irani joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. The subsequent year, she assumed the role of vice-president in the Maharashtra Youth Wing in 2004. During the general elections for the 14th Lok Sabha held that same year, she contested in the Chandni Chowk constituency in Delhi, but regrettably, she did not secure victory. This election marked a surprising defeat for the incumbent Vajpayee government.

In December 2004, Irani, attributing the BJP's electoral losses to the then Gujarat chief minister, Narendra Modi, threatened to go on a hunger strike until his resignation. However, she withdrew this demand following warnings of potential action from the BJP's central leadership.

Irani's contributions to the party led to her nomination as an executive member of the central committee of the BJP. During the 2009 parliamentary election campaign, while advocating for Vijay Goel in the New Delhi constituency, she raised concerns about women's safety in the city and advocated for capital punishment as a deterrent for rapists.

In early 2010, Irani was appointed as the National Secretary of the BJP, and on June 24, she was named the All India President of the BJP's women's wing, BJP Mahila Morcha. In her role as the National President of BJP Women's Wing, she championed the cause of Permanent Commission for Women in the Indian Army, providing legal support to women officers with temporary commissions who were seeking permanent commissions.

In August 2011, Irani made her parliamentary debut, taking her oath as a member of the Rajya Sabha, representing Gujarat.

In the 2014 general elections, Irani contested the Amethi constituency in Uttar Pradesh against Rahul Gandhi. Regrettably, she lost to Gandhi by a margin of 107,923 votes, equivalent to 12.32%. On May 26, 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appointed her as the Minister of Human Resource Development in his cabinet. Her appointment drew criticism from some due to her lack of formal higher education.

During her tenure as the HRD minister, Irani initiated a series of reforms in universities.

In June 2016, she announced the establishment of new yoga departments in six additional universities.

In a cabinet reshuffle that took place in July 2016, Irani was moved from the ministry of human resource development to the ministry of textiles.

Then, in July 2017, she assumed the additional responsibility of the ministry of information and broadcasting following the resignation of former minister Venkaiah Naidu, who had chosen to participate in the vice-presidential elections.

In the 2019 general elections, Irani secured victory in the Lok Sabha seat in Amethi, defeating Rahul Gandhi and consequently becoming a Member of Parliament for the Amethi constituency.