Aruna Kori

A leader of Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party,[3] Kori started his career at Samajwadi Party and She is the first woman to be Uttar Pradesh Minister of Women and Child development. She has been elected first time as a Member of legislative assembly from Bilhaur, kanpur.[4] She is the Uttar Pradesh youngest Women Minister.[5]

[6] Arun Kumari Kori, 39, was the only woman minister in the council of 48 ministers of Uttar Pradesh. She is being entrusted with the portfolios of women, welfare and culture.

However, there is a confusion regarding her name. She was sworn in as Aruna Kori, not Arun Kumari Kori, her correct name. "Actually my name was entered there as Aruna Kumari and even during oath taking ceremony it was mentioned as Aruna Kumari, which is why I signed and took oath as Aruna Kumari," says Arun Kumari Kori.

It's not only about her name. Even there is a confusion regarding her age. While contesting elections in 2007, she declared her age as 35 in her affidavit to the election commission. While in 2012 she mentioned her age as 38. Clearing this confusion she said, "My date of birth is 11th March 1973. Somebody wrongly wrote my age as 35 in the affidavit in 2007."

Who is to blame for this? No points for guessing. That's where the controversy ends as of now. Here starts the fairy tale of Arun Kumari Kori.

Being a Dalit and a young female face of the Samajwadi Party, she perfectly fits the bill. Samajwadi Party, undergoing change, decided to induct her into the ministerial council of young Akhilesh Yadav, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. Akhilesh himself is just 38.

Though she is very young, she could very well be called a veteran in politics. She fought election a year before Akhilesh fought his first election. At the age of 26, she was a Samajwadi Party candidate from Ghatampur in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections. She almost caused an upset losing election by only 105 votes. She was defeated by Bahujan Samajwadi Party's heavyweight Pyare Lal Sankhwar. She got 1,56,477 votes. Pyare Lal Sankhwar got 1,56,582 votes.

To put it in perspective, Akhilesh fought his first election in 2000. He became an MP when he contested a by-election in Kannauj - a seat vacated by his father, Mulayam Singh Yadav. He has been the Kannauj MP since. Now even he has to vacate this seat very soon.

It was a good start to Arun Kumari's political career. Considering she just graduated in MA (Sociology) in 1996 from Kanpur University and within three years she was about to win a Lok Sabha seat, couldn't be called a bad start in any sense. She attributes her entry into politics to her father-in-law, Buddha Chandra.

"My father-in-law retired as DIG and joined Samajwadi Party. He was made an MLC and also a minister. He is the one who brought me into politics," says Arun Kumari.

In 2002, she was given a SP ticket to contest Assembly elections in 2002 from Bhognipur, a reserved seat from Kanpur Dehat. She came out with flying colours. She defeated her closest rival Nirmala Sankhwar of BSP by a margin of almost 10 thousand votes.

However, in 2007, she could not hold on to her seat. She was defeated by Raghunath Prasad of BSP by only 3,096 votes. She got 33,733 votes. Raghunath Prasad got 36,829 votes. Samajwadi Party also fared badly. They could win only 80 seats, a complete turnaround of fortune. In 2002 they had won 143 seats.

Come 2012, Arun did what she was supposed to do. Riding an anti-Mayawati wave, she won from Bilhaur, a reserved seat (SC) from Kanpur Dehat, by a handsome margin. She got 87,804 votes. Her nearest rival Kamlesh Chandra Diwakar of BSP got 71,747 votes.

Being only a second time MLA, she was not expected to be a minister this time. But her selection was done more in order to appease communities and caste equations than in keeping with Akhilesh's youth image, it seems.

She knows that a lot is expected of her. "I am feeling very good. Being the only woman minister, I will try to raise issues regarding women," she said.

She is one of those politicians who have no criminal record against her. She has assets worth Rs 59 lakhs (as declared in her affidavit), a sum considered modest these days for a politician.