Poonam Mahajan

In 2019, Poonam was given the ticket to contest from Mumbai North Central once again, which she won comfortably, beating her opponent Priya Dutt by a margin of 1.30 lakh votes.

She also serves as a patron and mentor to Swachhalay, a youth-driven non-profit organisation working to support PM Shri Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat Mision. In 2016, Poonam co-founded Mumbai Youth Forum, a youth-led non-profit that seeks to encourage greater collaboration between young people and elected representatives/policymakers, through the creation of a platform with the aim of promoting democratic values and inclusion.

Ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Poonam Mahajan ran one of the most innovative social media political campaigns in the country. Her team included many first time voters from across the country which were brought on board through a volunteer network campaign she launched on instagram. According to Mid-Day, she received over 3,000 applications from across the nation within a day, with many young people applying to volunteer their time for her campaign. Under the hashtag #PoonamPhirSe, Poonam tried to woo the young first time voters of her constituency by launching innovative campaigns like #AskPoonam on Instagram, where followers asked her everything from why slums near Mumbai airport are not a concern for her to how she juggles her role as a mother of two with that of being an MP. Her ‘young’ war room filled with first time voters received a lot of media coverage during election season. The young team launched ‘millenial’ merchandise, fusing pop culture with modern-day politics, to attract young first-time voters in Mumbai. T-shirts and other paraphernalia like pop sockets were distributed with printed content with millennial cultural references from sources like Game of thrones, Harry Potter and Star Wars.

Given her performance in parliament and her appeal amongst the youth, in 2016, she took a national leadership position in BJP organisation as the National President of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of the BJP.

Prior to the General elections in 2014, with an eye on strengthening the organisation, Poonam was appointed as the National Secretary of the BJP in 2013. In the following year, she was given a ticket for the Lok Sabha elections from Mumbai North Central, which was considered to be a stronghold of the Congress. The seat was never won by the BJP since independence. Poonam Mahajan rose to national prominence by winning against incumbent two-time MP Priya Dutt by a margin of 1.86 lakh votes.

She introduced a number of Private Member Bills for the benefit of women, children, sex-workers, senior citizens and animals during her tenure from 2014 to 2019. Some of the bills introduced by her are as follows:

In 2009, Poonam Mahajan contested her first election and lost the Assembly Elections from Ghatkopar against Ram Kadam of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. Post this defeat, she continued working with the party in her organisational capacity and was appointed the National Vice President of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, in 2010.

After her father's death, Poonam Mahajan formally joined politics on 30 October 2006 by becoming a primary member of the BJP at the age of 26. In April of the following year, she was appointed as the General Secretary for Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, Maharashtra unit.

Poonam Mahajan alias Poonam Vajendla Rao (Hindi: पूनम महाजन , born 9 December 1980) is an Indian politician who serves as the Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from Mumbai North Central, constituency, Maharashtra. She is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. She also serves as the National President of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party, since December 2016.