Anurag Thakur

Anurag Singh Thakur is a member^[1] of Lok Sabha from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh in India. He is the son of Prem Kumar Dhumal, the former Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh. He is third time MP. Member of 14, 15 and 16th Loksabha.He was first elected to Lok Sabha in May 2008 in a by poll as a candidate of Bharatiya Janata Party. He won once again from Hamirpur representing BJP in 2014 Lok Sabha Elections. He was elected as the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India in May 2016.On July 29, 2016 he became the first serving BJP Member of Parliament to become a regular commissioned Officer in the Territorial army.

Early life and education

Thakur was born on 24 October 1974 at Hamirpur. He is the eldest son of Prem Kumar Dhumal and Sheela Devi.^[2] He studied at Dayanand Model School, Jalandhar. He later completed his BA from Doaba College, Jalandhar.

Political career

In May 2008, Thakur succeeded his father when he was elected as Member of Parliament of India's 14th Lok Sabha from Hamirpur constituency. He was re-elected to the 15th Lok Sabha in 2009, and again re-elected in 2014 to the 16th Loksabha. Later, Thakur was appointed the president of the All India Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha.^[3][4] Anurag Thakur led march from Kolkata to Lal Chowk in Srinagar under the banner of "Rashtriya Ekta Yatra" sponsored by Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) to unfurl the National Flag at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on 26 January 2011.

Thakur is a 3rd time elected Member of Parliament (LS) from the Hamirpur constituency in Himachal Pradesh—Member of Parliament (M.P) – 16th Lok Sabha (Won by a record margin) (Hamirpur,HP). Thakur is one of the youngest Parliamentarians in India today and received the Best Young Parliamentarian Award in 2011.

Cricket career

Thakur played a Ranji trophy match against Jammu & Kashmir in November 2000 when he was the president of HPCA and appointed himself as the chairman of selectors of HPCA Ranji trophy cricket team. His passion for cricket is clearly seen in the creation of the picturesque International Level Cricket Stadium at Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh. Being a sports enthusiast, he has actively helped in the development of stadiums, playgrounds and sports facilities in the state of Himachal Pradesh.^[5] He has played one match in first-class cricket representing Himachal Pradesh and leading the team as captain in a match against Jammu and Kashmir in the 2000/2001 season. Jammu and Kashmir won by 4 wickets.^[5]

Cricket administrator

He is the current President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Early on in his administrative tenure, he gained fame for possibly being the first cricketer to have made his first-class debut after taking over as the president of the state cricket association in july 2000. This debut was his one and only first-class cricket match. This experience in first-class cricket enabled his induction into the BCCI national junior selection committee, satisfying the condition that only first-class players could be national selectors.^[6]

Thakur has continued to rise up the ranks to the position of Secretary for BCCI.^[7] On 22 May 2016,Thakur became the president of BCCI, unopposed.

Thakur is also the Founder of the Honour Our Women (HOW) Foundation, an initiative that works for creating social awareness about women's issues, safety and empowerment through seminars, street plays and involvement of various civil society stakeholders, celebrities, journalists and parliamentarians.

Territorial Army

In July 2016, Thakur became a part of the territorial army, becoming the first serving BJP Member of Parliament to become a regular commissioned Officer in the Territorial army.^[8]

Personal life

Thakur married Shefali Thakur, daughter of Gulab Singh Thakur, former Public Works Department minister in the government of Himachal Pradesh, on 27 November 2002.

References

• New cricket stadium in Himachal Pradesh dedicated to Vajpayee

External links

• Anurag Singh Thakur at Government of India website
• Player profile: Anurag Thakur from ESPNcricinfo

Members of the 16th Lok Sabha from Himachal Pradesh State
GE 2014	Anurag Thakur Shanta Kumar Ram Swaroop Sharma Virender Kashyap
15th LS members 17th LS members Members of the 16th Lok Sabha from States AP BH CT GA GJ HR HP JK JH KL KA MP MH OR PB RJ TN TG UP UT WB Northeast AR AS MN ML MZ NL SK TR Union Territories AN CH DN DD LD DL PY

Bharatiya Janata Party
Presidents	Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1980–86) Lal Krishna Advani (1986–91) Murli Manohar Joshi (1991–93) Lal Krishna Advani (1993–98) Kushabhau Thakre (1998–2000) Bangaru Laxman (2000–01) Jana Krishnamurthi (2001–02) Venkaiah Naidu (2002–04) Lal Krishna Advani (2004–06) Rajnath Singh (2006–09) Nitin Gadkari (2009–13) Rajnath Singh (2013–14) Amit Shah (2014–present)
Current Vice Presidents	Satya Pal Malik Parsottambhai Rupala Prabhat Jha Vinay Sahasrabuddhe Renu Devi Dinesh Sharma Om Prakash Mathur Shyam Jaju Avinash Rai Khanna
Other prominent leaders	Sushma Swaraj Arun Jaitley Yashwant Sinha Subramanian Swamy Ravi Shankar Prasad Pramod Mahajan Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi Sushil Kumar Modi Himanta Biswa Sarma
Prime Ministers	Atal Bihari Vajpayee Narendra Modi
Current Chief ministers	Vijay Rupani Vasundhara Raje Shivraj Singh Chouhan Raman Singh Laxmikant Parsekar Manohar Lal Khattar Devendra Fadnavis Raghubar Das Sarbananda Sonowal
Spokespersons	Syed Shahnawaz Hussain M. J. Akbar Meenakshi Lekhi Sudhanshu Trivedi Bizay Sonkar Shastri Siddharth Nath Singh Nalin Kohli Shaina NC Sambit Patra Anil Baluni GVL Narsimha Rao Gopal Krishna Agarwal
General Secretaries	P. Muralidhar Rao Kailash Vijayvargiya Muralidhar Rao Ram Madhav Saroj Pandey Bhupender Yadav Anil Jain Ram Lal Arun Singh
Morcha	Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha BJP Mahila Morcha BJP SC Morcha BJP ST Morcha BJP OBC Morcha BJP Minority Morcha BJP Kisan Morcha
Related organisations	Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Bharatiya Jana Sangh Janata Party Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh Bharatiya Kisan Sangh
Others	Hindutva Integral humanism