Sarbananda Sonowal Biography

About Santosh Kumar Gangwar

For more than three decades, leading politician Santosh Kumar Gangwar has been active in both politics and social work. A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, Gangwar has been a Member of Parliament from the Bareilly constituency of Uttar Pradesh since 1989 (except from 2009-2014). On July 2016, Santosh Kumar Gangwar assumed charge as the Minister of State for Finance in the Modi government.

Early Life

Born on November 1, 1948 in Bareilly, Santosh Kumar Gangwar has been an alumnus of the Agra University and the Rohilkhand University in Uttar Pradesh from where he completed his B Sc and LLB Degrees.

Before joining politics, Gangwar was actively involved in the establishment of the Urban Cooperative Bank in Bareilly and held the position of its chairman since its beginning in the year 1996. In Bareilly, he has been given credit for getting several projects executed for public use such as Chaupla Railway over-bridge, state-of-the-art library and mini bye pass, etc.  Married to Saubhagya Gangwar, he is blessed with two children (one son and one daughter).

 

Political Career of Santosh Kumar Gangwar

Santosh Kumar Gangwar entered politics during emergency when he was jailed for leading a popular movement against the then Indira Gandhi government. He later joined BJP as a member of its state working committee in Utter Pradesh and served on various key posts.

Gangwar forayed into national politics in the year 1989, when he was elected from Bareilly in the 9th Lok Sabha on a BJP ticket. In 1996, Gangwar became the General Secretary of the BJP’s Uttar Pradesh unit. Later, he won continuously from the same constituency and remained an MP for the next six successive terms till 2009. In the 14th Lok Sabha, he was the chief whip of his party, but in the 2009 elections for 15th Lok Sabha, he was defeated by a narrow margin.

Gangwar has served as minister in the Government of India. In the year 1998, he had served as a minister of state for Petroleum and Natural Gas in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government. On October 14, 1999, he was given the portfolio of MoS for Science and Technology.

On May 26, 2014, he was appointed as the Minister of State (MoS) for Textiles in the Narendra Modi government. On July, 2016, He took over as the Minister of State for Finance.

Santosh Kumar Gangwar has also served as a member in different parliamentary committees, such as Privileges Committee, Consultative Committee on Transport and Tourism, Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Government Assurances Committee and Governing Body and Committee on Estimates. He was also Chairman, Standing Committee on Agriculture during 1996-97. In the state unit of BJP in Uttar Pradesh, he has served as BJP General Secretary since 1996.