Ambika Soni

Ambika Soni is a Congress Party leader who is a member of Rajya Sabha, representing the state of Punjab. She was appointed as the Minister of Information and Broadcasting from 22 May 2009 to 28 October 2012. From 29 January 2006 to 22 May 2009, she was also the Minister of Tourism and Minister of Culture in UPAI Government. She had relinquished her position in the Cabinet and had taken up the charge of corroborating and reinforcing the Congress Party for 2017 Lok Sabha elections.

Soni was born in Lahore in undivided Punjab in 1942. Her father Nakul Sen Whadwa was an I.C.S Officer and Lt. Governor of Goa. Her mother’s name is Indu Nakul Sen Wadhwa. Ambika is an alumna of Welham Girls’ School, Dehradun and did her M.A (Hons) from Indraprastha College, Delhi University. Soni further pursued courses in advanced French from Alliance Francaise in Bangkok and Post-Graduate Diploma in Spanish Art and Literature from University of Havana, Cuba. In 1961, she tied the knot with Uday Soni, an Indian Foreign Service Officer. In 1969, Ambika Soni’s career started as a volunteer in the Congress Party, introduced by Indira Gandhi. She held several posts within the party in between 1969 and 1972. She was also the in charge of Congress Delegate Affairs Department. Later on, she was appointed as the General Secretary of Indian Youth Congress. She went on to become the President of INY in 1975.

Ambika secured herself a seat in the Rajya Sabha in 1976 for the first time and re-elected in July 2004. In 1988, she rose to National eminence by becoming the President of the All India Mahila Congress. In 2006, during her reign as the Minister of Tourism and Minister of Culture, she put in tremendous efforts to bring out a significant change in the country’s tourism scenario through reforms and aggressive campaigns. In July 2010, she was again elected to Rajya Sabha. Ambika also has  the duty of strengthening the Party for the upcoming elections.