‘Uttarakhand governor Baby Rani Maurya a dedicated worker, strict administrator’

AGRA:

Baby Rani Maurya

, who was named the governor of

Uttarakhand

by the central government on Tuesday, was a strict administrator as Agra

mayor

from 1995 to 2000, said incumbent mayor Naveen Jain. Maurya, who was the first female mayor of Agra, is set to become the second woman to be the governor of Uttarakhand, after Margaret Alwa in 2009.



The Agra mayor was elected councilor and eventually nominated as deputy mayor by the board of councilors when Maurya was the mayor. According to Jain, she made even senior officials answer for civic issues concerning people. On one occasion, she sat on the floor in protest against the municipal commissioner.

The then Agra Mayor Baby Rani Maurya greets former US president Bill Clinton during his visit to the city in 2000

Maurya become active in politics in the early 1990s, after she got married to bank officer Pradeep Kumar Maurya, who is now serving as a member of the Punjab National Bank advisory board after retirement. Her father-in-law MD Maurya was an IPS officer. She did not come from a family of politicians and started her political journey as a common party worker of the BJP. In 1995, she was awarded a ticket to contest elections for the post of the mayor of Agra, which she won with a large mandate.

Jain said, “Maurya was a highly disciplined party worker and maintained strictness during her tenure as the mayor. She used to take public complaints seriously and would always make officials accountable for them. Once she landed in confrontation with the municipal commissioner, who was not ready to act as per mandate of the house. On this, she got down from her chair and sat on the floor of the house in protest. The matter reached the state government, after which the then district magistrate Durgashankar Mishra had to rush to pacify her.”

Maurya conducts road show after winning election for post of Mayor of Agra


“As the DM was standing while talking to mayor (who was on the floor), she reminded him of protocol of how to interact with an elected leader of the city, and he too had to sit on the floor. The central government has chosen a very deserving person to be the governor of Uttarakhand,” Jain added.

In 1997, Maurya was appointed office bearer of the party’s schedule caste wing, which was then headed by the incumbent President of India Ramnath Kovind. Under the leadership of Kovind, she worked extensively to strengthen the party among members of the Schedule Caste in UP. In 2001, she was nominated as a member of the UP social welfare board. Following her efforts towards empowerment of dalit women, she was nominated as a member of the National Women Commission.

In 2007, BJP chose her to contest Agra’s Etmadpur seat for the party, but she was defeated with a short margin by BSP candidate Narayan Singh Suman. From 2013 to 2015, she addressed state-level responsibilities assigned by the party. Last month, she was nominated as a member of the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR).

BJP state vice president Purushottam Khandelwal said, “Baby Rani Maurya has been a highly disciplined and dedicated party worker. This helped her progress from a common party worker to the governor of Uttarakhand. She has made Agra proud and will surely contribute to the progress of Uttarakhand in big way.” According to BJP leaders, Maurya was in America when she was informed about being made the governor of Uttarakhand. She is likely to return to Agra on Thursday.