Pragya Singh Thakur

Pragya Singh Thakur (born 2 February 1970), better known as Sadhvi Pragya, is an Indian politician and Member of Parliament representing Bhopal and belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party. During her college days, she was an active member of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and later joined various affiliate organisations of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

She is an accused in the 2008 Malegaon bombings where 10 people were killed and 82 more were injured. She was arrested on terror charges after her bike was found to be used in the bomb blast. She is currently under trial for multiple charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. In 2017 she was granted bail on health grounds following the dropping of some of the serious charges by the National Investigation Agency.

Thakur contested the 2019 Indian general election from Bhopal constituency, running against Digvijaya Singh of the Indian National Congress, the former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. She won her debut contest by a margin of votes. According to political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot, she has become the "symbol" of the 2019 election, in which nebulous fringe elements of the Hindutva ideology became mainstream.

On 21 November 2019 Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur was made a part of the 21-member parliamentary consultative committee on defence, which is headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. After her comment in parliament, where she called Nathuram Godse (Gandhi's assassin) a patriot, she was criticised by opposition party members. On 28 November, she was removed from the committee on defence as well as BJP parliamentary party meetings. Provided by Wikipedia