Trupti Desai

Trupti Desai is the founder of the Bhumata Brigade & Bhumata Foundation, a Pune-based organization, and an Indian social activist. She was born on December 12, 1985, in Nipani taluka, the Indian state of Karnataka. She was raised by her mother with her two siblings as her father left the family for an ashram. She studied Home Science at the Pune campus of Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey (SNDT) Women's University, but discontinued after the first year due to family problems. Trupti has been married since 2006 and has one son. Her husband ‘Prashant’ says she is “extremely spiritual” and a follower of Gagangiri Maharaj of Kolhapur. In 2003, she was a social worker to help rehabilitate slum dwellers with Krantiveer Jhopdi Vikas Sangh. In 2007, she started staging protests against the financial irregularities at the Ajit Cooperative Bank, involving fraud of ₹50 crores (US$6.3 million). In January 2009, she led a group against Ajit Pawar Ajit Anantrao Pawar is an Indian politician. He wa >> Read More... , then deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

In 2013, an arrest warrant was also issued against Trupit for heading the group that allegedly "slapped the effigy of Pawar, used abusive language and held an illegal agitation despite prohibitory orders". But she was immediately released on bail claiming that the arrest was just a tactic to stop activists from protesting. She founded the Bhumata Brigade on 27 September 2010. Since its founding, the brigade has grown from 400 to 5,000 registered members (since January 2016). In 2011, she also participated in the anti-corruption movement. Trupti campaigned for allowing women to religious places like the Mahalakshmi temple, the Shani Shingnapur temple, the Haji Ali Dargah, and the Trimbakeshwar Shiva temple all the temples in Maharashtra, and most recently in the Sabarimala temple in Kerala. She was an Indian National Congress candidate in 2012 for the Pune Municipal Corporation elections. She also participated in Bigg Boss Marathi 3 in 2021 as a contestant.