PrashantNews
Every time she contests the Lok Sabha election from the prestigious Tehri seat in Uttarakhand, the profile of veteran BJP leader Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah goes up.
Shah, a former Tehri royal, has added one more feather in her cap by becoming the first politician to win a Lok Sabha seat in Uttarakhand for a record fourth time that too consecutively. Former union minister Ajay Tamta (BJP) is behind Shah as he has won Almora seat for the third time in a row.
Before Shah, her father in law late Manabendra Shah, the Maharaja of the eartwhile Tehri kingdom, became victorious from this seat eight times. But after the formation of Uttarakhand, he could win from the constituency only once in 2004 as he died in 2007. “The credit of my fourth victory from Tehri must go to the people, my party workers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and various other leaders of BJP”, she said.
Significantly, Shah is the first and the only woman who entered the Lok Sabha from Uttarakhand till date.
Shah started her political career when BJP high command fielded her in the 2012 Tehri byelections to face former Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna’s son Saket. Thereafter, the maharani never looked back. Since then, she has won all the Lok Sabha elections from Tehri seat.
As she belongs to the erstwhile Tehri royal family, Shah is obviously the richest woman of Uttarakhand. Her family assets are worth Rs 206.9 crore.
Shah, who was born on Aug 23, 1950, at the Thapathali Durbar, Kathmandu in Nepal, is married to Manujendra Shah, son of late Manabendra Shah. She has a daughter Kshirya Kumari Devi. Mala is an intermediate and studied from Convent of Jesus and Mary Pune and Ratna Rajya Laxmi College Kathmandu.