Are These Parliament's Formidable MPs?

IMAGE: This is likely Congress MP Sonia Gandhi's final term in Parliament, having declared her intention to retire from politics.
Soniaji was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1999 from Bellary and Amethi, but then retained Amethi for sentimental reasons -- it was her late husband's Lok Sabha constituency from 1981 to 1989.
How many people recall that Soniaji was the first lady Leader of the Opposition in Parliament?
Since 2004, she has been elected from Rae Bareli, which her late mother-in-law Indira Gandhi represented in 1967, 1971 and 1980. Photograph: Jitender Gupta/ANI Photo

IMAGE: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was first elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2014 from Andhra Pradesh. Since then, she has been elected to the Upper House from Karnataka.
Modiji wants senior Cabinet ministers, who are Rajya Sabha MPs, to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha election, but we feel Nirmalaji and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar (elected from Gujarat) will be exempt from the rule. Photograph: Shrikant Singh/ANI Photo

IMAGE: Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat in 2011; she stayed on in the Upper House till 2019.
In 2019, she defeated Rahul Gandhi by 55,120 votes in Amethi to be elected a member of the Lok Sabha for the first time.
Even though she defeated a MoSha bete noire, she wasn't rewarded with a higher ministerial profile. Wonder why. Photograph: SansadTV/ANI Photo

IMAGE: How many of you reading this feature know that Maneka Gandhi is one of the senior-most members of the Lok Sabha?
She fought her first Lok Sabha election in December 1984 against her estranged brother in-law Rajiv Gandhi in Amethi, but lost by 270,000 votes.
She moved to Pilibhit in the 1989 Lok Sabha election and won on a Janata Dal ticket.
She lost the 1991 election, was elected again on a Janata Dal ticket from Pilibhit in 1996.
In 1999, she won from the constituency as an Independent candidate.
From 2004 onwards, she has been elected to the Lok Sabha on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket -- in 2004 and 2014 from Pilibhit, in 2009 from Aonla and in 2019 from Sultanpur.
She was divested of her ministership in 2019 and it is uncertain if MoShah will give her or son Feroze Varun -- currently, the MP from Pilibhit -- a ticket in 2024. Photograph: Rahul Singh/ANI Photo

IMAGE: It has been 19 years since Jaya Bachchan was first elected to the Rajya Sabha on a Samajwadi Party ticket.
Amar Singh, then a close friend of the Bachchan family, may have facilitated her entry into politics, but even after relations soured between them, the SP dynasty -- first Mulayam Singh Yadav, then his son Akhilesh -- have contiued to nominate the plainspeaking, fiery, veteran actor who plays pretty much her real self in Karan Johar's latest movie.
A fifth term in the Rajya Sabha would be interesting if Jayaji can swing it; she shows no signs of wanting to retire from politics. Photograph: Shrikant Singh/ANI Photo

IMAGE: Hema Malini has represented Mathura with fervour for two terms in the Lok Sabha (2014 and 2019) unlike her diffident husband Dharmendra (Bikaner, 2004 to 2009) and stepson Sunny Deol (Gurdaspur, 2019 to date).
Most don't recall Hemaji's Parliamentary career began in the Rajya Sabha in 2003 as a nominated member of that House.
Hemaji turns 75 on October 16, so it looks like she won't be nominated for a third term, given MoSha's stern 75 year retirement rule. Photograph: Sanjay Sharma/ANI Photo

IMAGE: No first term MP has arguably made such an impact in the 17th Lok Sabha as the Trinamool Congress's articulate MP Mahua Moitra, seen here interacting with Telugu Desam Party MP Jayadev Galla on the Parliament premises.
The former JP MorganChase merchant banker, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Krishnanagar in her native Bengal, defeating the BJP's Kalyan Chaubey, now the president of the All India Football Federation by 63,218 votes -- has risen to be one of the MoSha regime's most vociferous opponents.
But will Mamatadi give her a ticket in 2024, given the TMC supremo's penchant for keeping all the spotlight on herself and her nephew Abhishek. Photograph: Sanjay Sharma/ANI Photo

IMAGE: Given her tweets and appearances on news television 'debates', one would think that the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)'s Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi is a Parliament veteran, but she was only elected to the House of the Elders (at 44, she is the youngest on this list) in 2020.
Unlike her senior party and Rajya Sabha colleague Sanjay Raut who can be intemperate in his statements, Priyanka is measured in her views, but ever ready to deliver the knockout punch. Photograph: Shrikant Singh/ANI Photo

IMAGE: A three-term MP, the Nationalist Congress Party's Supriya Sule has won accolades and praise for her consistent performance in Parliament.
She may not be flashy or fiery -- she is the sober Sharad Pawar's only child, after all -- but her interventions have made a mark on the proceedings in the House.
There is a big challenge coming up for Supriya in 2024 -- MoShah would like her to be defeated in the Pawar's political borough Baramati and inflict humiliation on her dad, but will cousin Ajit Pawar, now a part of the NDA, go with the BJP monarchy's plans?
One priceless factoid before we sign off -- did you know Supriya's maternal grandfather Sadu Shinde played seven Test matches for India?
Tragically, Pratibha Pawar's father died of typhoid, aged only 31 in 1955. Photograph: Sanjay Sharma/ANI Photo