Today, on 26 August, Indian politician Maneka Gandhi is celebrating her 68th birthday. Maneka Gandhi stays away from limelight and controversies. Most of her attention is spent on social work and animal care and service. Maneka Gandhi’s love for animals is well known. Maneka Gandhi belongs to the country’s oldest political Gandhi family. She is the daughter-in-law of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and wife of Sanjay Gandhi. On the occasion of her birthday, let us know about Maneka Gandhi’s interesting journey from becoming the daughter-in-law of the Gandhi family to becoming a BJP MP…
Birth and family
Maneka Gandhi was born on 26 August 1956 in New Delhi. She got her first modeling break at the age of 17. Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s late son Sanjay Gandhi became crazy about Maneka after seeing her Bombay Dyeing ad. Maneka and Sanjay met in 1973 and both of them fell in love with each other.
Sanjay and Maneka wanted to marry each other, but Indira Gandhi was against their relationship. But finally Sanjay and Maneka got married on 23 September 1974. Sanjay Gandhi was 10 years older than Maneka. After the marriage, Indira Gandhi had Maneka’s Bombay Dyeing posters removed overnight.
Politics and conflict
In the year 1982, Maneka Gandhi faced a lot of sorrows. Actually, Indira Gandhi’s son and Maneka’s husband Sanjay Gandhi died in an air crash. After which Maneka Gandhi started participating in rallies organized by political rivals. Maneka Gandhi’s mother-in-law, i.e. Indira Gandhi, threw her out of the house on suspicion of usurping power. At that time, Maneka Gandhi was only 23 years old and Varun Gandhi was just 100 days old.
In such a situation, Maneka Gandhi’s life had come to a turning point of struggle. However, when Sanjay Gandhi was alive, Maneka often used to go on tours with him. To strengthen her husband Sanjay Gandhi and the Congress party, Maneka Gandhi used to publish the monthly magazine Surya. But everything changed after Sanjay Gandhi’s death.
tried his luck in politics
After being thrown out of her in-laws’ house, Maneka Gandhi started living in a one-room house with her son Varun Gandhi. She collected some money by selling her husband Sanjay Gandhi’s truck and started writing for books and magazines. Slowly, Maneka Gandhi started establishing herself. She founded Rashtriya Sanjay Manch and her party won four out of five seats in the Andhra Pradesh assembly elections.
After this, in 1984, Maneka Gandhi contested the Lok Sabha elections from Amethi against Rajiv Gandhi, but she had to face defeat in this election. Then in 1988, she joined VP Singh’s Janata Dal and in 1989, she became an MP for the first time and then became a Union Minister. After this, Maneka Gandhi never looked back. She was continuously elected MP from Pilibhit. She has also been an MP from Sultanpur.
