Purnima Niraj Singh

Purnima Niraj Singh (born 21 November 1985) is a Member of the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly from the Jharia constituency in Dhanbad district. She was married to late Niraj Singh, the ex-Deputy Mayor of Dhanbad.

Education

She went to Lucknow's City Montessori School to study Science. Afterwards, she got herself a Bachelor's in Arts in English and Computer Application from Isabella Thoburn College, Lucknow. She followed up her graduation degree with a Mass Communication Masters in Advertising & Marketing from Amity University Noida. Purnima Singh later went on to pick up a Diploma in the German language from Central Institute of English and foreign languages.

Career

Academia

Purnima Niraj Singh began her professional career as a teacher, curriculum designer, program facilitator and coordinator at City International School and Global Classrooms Private Limited. She stayed involved with the organization from 2009 to 2012.

Politics

She contested the 2019 Jharkhand State Assembly Polls from Jharia as a Mahagathbandhan and Indian National Congress candidate against Ragini Singh, the wife of S anjeev Singh, her brother-in-law who is an accused in the murder of her late husband Niraj Singh. Winning the elections by a margin of 12054 (twelve thousand and fifty four) votes she created history by winning the Jharia seat for INC for the first time in 52 years. Although INC won a total of 16 seats in the 2019 Jharkhand Assembly polls, marking its best electoral performance since the formation for the state, it failed to win any other seat in the rest of Dhanbad district, making Purnima Niraj Singh's victory all the more noticeable. A few days before the Assembly election a sum of Rupees Two Lakhs was recovered from the her brother-in-law and Congress leader, Abhishek Singh. An FIR was registered by the Election Commission of India against her brother-in-law. Her other brother-in-law, Harsh Singh, is an accused and charged in the murder of Ranjay Singh. Due to tremendous pressure in the Ranjay Murder case, her brother-in-law, Harsh Singh, surrendered dramatically at the Dhanbad Court. Her victory also marks a first for the Magathbandhan in the Jharia Assembly Seat.

Personal life

On 7 December 2012, she married Niraj Singh, Dhanbad's former Deputy Mayor, thus also becoming a daughter-in-law of Bachcha Singh, the sibling of Late Suryadeo Singh, a former MLA and minister in Jharkhand State Government. Though her marriage into a political family allowed her to have front row seats to Dhanbad district's and the state's politics, it was after Niraj Singh, her husband was murdered in a grisly shootout that she was forced to step into the formal political arena.