Worldwide Guide to Women in Leadership
Indian Parties

Also see India Ministers

1917-19 President of Indian Congress Annie Besant

1917 Vice-President of Indian Congress Bai Amman

1917-ca.25 Vice-President of Indian Congress Sarojini Naidu
1925-33 President
She became governor of a state in 1949.

1933 President of Indian Congress Nellie Sengupta

1954-60 President of Indian Congress Indira Gandhi
1966-77 Leader of Indian Congress
1978-84 Leader of Congress (I)

1962-75 Vice-President of Sujantantra Party Maharani G. Devi
President of the Rajastan Bransh of SP.

1971-77 Leader of Samyukta Vidhayak Party in the Lokh Sabha Rajamata Vijaye Raje Scindica of Galiwor
1980-97 Vice-Chairperson of Janata Dal and from 1994 of BJP. 
Member of the Lokh Sabha for Congress 1957-67 and for BJP 1989-2001, Member of the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly 1967-71 and the Rajya Sabha 1978-89. Born as Lekha Divyeshwari she took the name of Vijayaraje after her marriage Maharaja Jivajirao Scindia of Gwalior, who died in 1960. She is from a branch of the Nepali royal family which had been banished to Sagar in India in the late 1880s. Mother of one son and four daughters (one of whom has been a Union Minister several times). She lived (1920-2001)

1980-88 Leader of Sanjay Vichar (or Rashtriya Sanjay Manch)  Maneka Gandhi
1989-90 Secretary General of Janata Dal
She was daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi, and founded her own party after her husband, Sanjay, was killed in a plane-crash. She has been member of a number of governments.

1984-? President of National Conference of Jammu and Kashmir Khaleda Shah

1995-98 Co-Leader of All Indian Dravidian Progressive Federation Janckie Ramachandran

1995-98 Co-Leader of All Indian Dravidian Progressive Federation J. Jayalatitha Jayram
1998- Parliamentary Leader in Lokh Sabha

Ca. 1995-98 General Secretary and Spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP Shushma Swaraj
2004- Deputy Leader of BJP in the Rajya Sabha and Spokesperson of the BJP Parliamentary Wing and Party Spokesperson
Former Union Minister and Chief Minister of Delhi.

1995-2001 Vice-President of Bahujan Samaja Party Mayawati
2001- Party Leader from 2002
2008- Leader of the "Third Front"
Mayawati Naina Kumari was Union MP from 1989 and later member of the Rajya Sabha. Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh 1995, 1997, 2002-03 and from 2007. Emerged as the leader of a "Third Front" in opposition to the Governing Congress Party and the Nationalist BJP consisting of regional parties and the Communists and frequently mentioned as a future Prime Minister. A member of the Dalit Community (former "untouchables") (b. 1956-).

1996- President of All India Pakhtoon Jirga-e-Hind Yasmin Niger
She followed her father and grandfather as leader of the Parkhtoons, which advoccates an independent Pakhtoonistan in Pakistan. (. 1970-)

After 1996 Deputy Chief Whip of Congress (I) Party in Raya Sabha Chandresh Kumari
In1977 Deputy Minister in Himachal Pradesh and Minister of State in 1984. She was born as Princess of Jodhpur and married Maharaja Aditya Dev Chand Katoch of Lambagaron and mother of one son.

1998- Founder and Leader of All INdia Trinamool Congress Mamata Banerjee
Had a number of Ministerial Posts. In 2001 her party lost the local elections in West Bengal, where she was trying to become chief minister. 

1998- President of Congress (I) Sonia Gandhi
1999-2004 Parliamentary Leader of Congress Party and Leader of the Opposition 
2004 Parliamentary Leader of Congress Party and Designate Prime Minister
2004-06 Chairperson of  the Congress Party in Parliament
2004- Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance and its coordination committee.
As President of Congress (I) since 1998, she was charged with forming a government in 1998, but failed, after the elecions she became Parliamentary Leader of the whole Parliamentary Party in the Lokh Sabha and Leader of the Opposition. In 2004 her party won the elections she was charged with forming a new government, but desided not to asume the office of Prime Minister, instead she remains the "power behind the throne" and "shadow Prime Minister", and the new Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, the first Sikh on the post, declared her "his leader". Chairperson of the National Advisory Council with Cabinet Rank 2004-06. Sonia is the widow of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was killed in 1989, and was born in Italy in (1945-) .

1998-2003 Vice-President of the People’s Democratic Party Mehbooda Mufti
2003- President of PDP and Leader in the Lokh Sabha
Daughter of Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed of Jammu and Kashmir.

2001- Leader of Adivasi-Dalit Action Council C.K. Janu
She is leader of the movement to restore the rights of the indigenous Adivasi population in Kerala. The tribals are landless and the poorest among the poorest in the state. In 2001 she lead a massive land agitation to fight for the return of adivasi lands in the forest areas where they have lived in millions of years  (recent genetic data has suggested that some of them might go back to the very first wave of out migrants from Africa), but in recent years their areas have been commercially exploited. In 2001 she reached an agreement with the Communist State Government reached an agreement to distribute lands to the, but it was unfit for cultivation and the forest officials obstructed the process. After having given the government over a year to implement what it agreed to the Adivasi Gothra Mahasabha (the grand assembly of Adivasis of Kerala) desided to take the matter into their own hands, but were brutally stuck down by the police, and C.J. Janu were imprisoned in Februrary 2003. She learned to read when she was around 18 and has been working as a domestic and daily-wage labourer since her childhood. Her birth year is unknown.

2001-06 First General Secretary of the Congress Party and Party Spokesperson Ambika Soni
A confidant of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, she is the Party Spokesperson and has been in charge of various portfolios within the party before becoming Union Minister of Culture and Tourism in 2006.

2003- President of the Womanist Party of India Varsha Kale

2003- Vice-president of the Womanist Party of India Avisha Kulkarni

2004- Vice-President of BJP Jaskaur Meena
It was the first time in a decade that BJP did not have a female Secretary General.

2004 General Secretary of BJP Uma Bharti
Former Union Minister and Chief Minister in Madhyra Pradesh. She was dismissed as General Secretary a few days after her nomination because of her opposition to the Party Leaders and later excluded from the party.

Last update 24.07.08