KOLKATA: One of the two faces from Bengal in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers, Debasree Chaudhuri is third-time lucky in her electoral battles.
A prominent face in the BJP's Bengal brigade, Chaudhuri was baptised in politics during her college days.
She worked in the party's youth wing and women's front for years and has been one of the general secretaries of the party's state unit for the last couple of years.
Chaudhuri had her first brush with elections in 2014 when she was fielded from the Burdwan-Durgapur Lok Sabha seat. She finished third getting around 17 per cent of votes. In 2016, she unsuccessfully contested the assembly polls.
This time the party fielded her from Raiganj, one of the seats which the BJP was highly hopeful about.
She defeated TMC's Kanaialal Agarwal by 60,574 votes. CPIM's Md Salim finished third, while Congress's Deepa Dasmunsi was pushed to the fourth spot in the fierce poll battle.
She was sworn-in as a minister of state along with Babul Supriyo, the party's MP from Asansol.