Ritu Khanduri was elected as the Speaker of the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly on Saturday, becoming the first woman Speaker of the state Assembly.
Kanduri was elected as the fifth Speaker of the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly. She succeeded BJP's Premchand Aggarwal, whose term ended on March 10.
Who is Ritu Khanduri ?
Ritu Khanduri's father was former Uttarakhand chief minister and Union minister Major General (Retd) Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri. She is also the wife of Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan, who is prominant face of India's fight against Covid-19 pandemic.
In recent 2022 Uttarakhand assembly elections Ritu was denied party ticket from her seat Yamkeshwar. So she contested the election from the Kotdwar assembly constituency.
She defeated Congress' Surendra Singh Negi by 3,687 votes. Interesting fact is that her father was defeated by Surendra Singh Negi from the same seat in 2012 assembly elections.
In 2017, Ritu won an election from the Yamkeshwar assembly seat in Uttarakhand's Pauri Garhwal district. She had defeated independent candidate Renu Bisht.
Her father, senior Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri, was the chief minister of Uttarakhand between 2007 and 2009, and then again from 2011-2012. But he lost the Kotdwar seat to Negi. Her father again won in 2014 general elections from the Pauri Garhwal seat.
In 2019 assembly elections, her father Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri didn't contest the electin due to age-related problems. Former CM Tirath Singh Rawat contested the election from his constituency the Pauri Garhwal. Senior Khanduri's son and brother of Ritu, Manish Khanduri was fighting against him on a Congress ticket.
(With inputs from agencies)
