Political Career
| Shrimati Dr. Vyjayanthimala Bali |
|
|---|---|
| Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) for Madras South | |
| In office 31 December 1984 – 27 November 1989 |
|
| Prime Minister | Indira Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi |
| Preceded by | R. Venkataraman |
| Succeeded by | Vyjayanthimala Bali |
| Majority | 48,017 (51.92%) |
| Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) for Madras South | |
| In office 2 December 1989 – 31 March 1991 |
|
| Prime Minister | V. P. Singh Chandra Shekhar Singh |
| Preceded by | Vyjayanthimala Bali |
| Succeeded by | R. Sridharan |
| Majority | 125,844 (53.91%) |
| Nominated Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) for Tamil Nadu | |
| In office 27 August 1993 – 26 August 1999 |
|
| Prime Minister | P. V. Narasimha Rao Atal Bihari Vajpayee H. D. Deve Gowda Inder Kumar Gujral Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
| Personal details | |
| Political party | Indian National Congress (1984 to 1999) Bharatiya Janata Party (1999 to present) |
Vyjayanthimala's political career was initiated in 1984 when she was contested in 1984 Tamil Nadu general election for the South Chennai constituency as the nominee of the Indian National Congress opposite Era Sezhiyan, the leader of Janata Party and seasoned parliamentarian. During the campaign, Sezhiyan took provoking quotes such as "Send me to the Lok Sabha. Send her to R.R. Sabha (an organisation promoting fine arts)" in order to defeat Vyjayanthimala, ironically she won the election with margin of about 48,000 votes where she gained 313,848 with percentage of 51.92%. Subsequently, she debuted in the Lok Sabha, the directly elected lower house of the Parliament of India by the end of January 1985 with Amitabh Bachchan.
In 1989, Vyjayanthimala again had to face the 1989 Tamil Nadu general election, this time she was opposed by Aladi Aruna of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. She again beat her opposition by nearly 125,844 lakh votes.
Later on 1993, she was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India for a six-year term.
In 1999, she has resigned from the primary membership of the Indian National Congress party. In her letter to the party's president Sonia Gandhi, she included the reason for her resignation where she said that, "painfully watching the party drifting from its avowed principles after the death of Rajiv Gandhi. The party has lost touch with its grassroots and one can see day in and day out that sincere party workers are being steadily ignored", she adds more, "increasingly difficult to justify ourselves to the public and my conscience does not allow me to stay in the party any longer". Later she joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on September 6, 1999.
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