Smriti Irani: The bahu on small screen makes it big in Narendra Modi ministry

NEW DELHI: From a Miss India contender to television’s most popular bahu to a politician who gave Rahul Gandhi a difficult time in his family bastion, 38-year-old Smriti Irani has had a meteoric rise in a career that’s not been short of surprises. Irani, who cut into Rahul Gandhi’s victory margin at Amethi by more than half this time, is not just a fighter and a hard worker but also an astute politician, said party workers.

Daughter of a Bengali-Punjabi couple and married to Parsi industrialist Zubin Irani, she’s a mother of three, including one child from her husband’s first marriage. Widely acknowledged in the BJP as a key member of Narendra Modi’s inner circle, Irani, AGE, is seen as an “effective communicator” by him. Modi trusts her to get his ideas across effectively to diplomats, industrialists and other groups.

During her campaign in Amethi, she often spoke about cleaning floors at McDonald’s to support her family before becoming a TV star. “Madam was confident right from the beginning that the Amethi (experience) will reward her sufficiently. She went there to ruffle feathers,” said a close associate who organised her campaign in UP. An avid tweeter who uses social media extensively to promote Modi’s ideas, she also has an admirer in Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar, who believes she is a “trouble shooter.”

Irani joined the BJP in 2003 after becoming a TV star. She contested against Kapil Sibal in the Chandni Chowk in Delhi in 2004 and lost. The same year, repeatedly taking Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s name, she told reporters in Surat that she would start a fast-untodeath agitation if Modi did not step down as CM of Gujarat after the riots. After the party asked her to retract her statement or face disciplinary action, Irani issued an apology, and has ever since maintained that Modi was magnanimous to forgive her.