Ex-NCW chairperson is BJP's Haryana Rajya Sabha poll pick

The ruling BJP on Monday nominated Rekha Sharma, a former Chairperson of the National Commission for Women, as its candidate for the Rajya Sabha election from Haryana.

The seat was vacated after the party's senior Scheduled Caste leader Krishan Lal Panwar won Haryana Assembly poll from Israna in Panipat. Elections to the Rajya Sabha will be held on December 20 and results will be declared the same day.

Rekha Sharma, 60, is an alumnus of DAV College, Dehradun (Uttarakhand), and graduated in political science, history and English literature.

In her long career spanning nine years at the National Commission for Women, first as member and later as chairperson, Sharma has worked on gender sensitisation of police personnel, the first points of contact for victims of violence and female prison inmates.

Married to an Army officer, Sharma has earlier been Member, District Consumer and Redressal Forum, Haryana. She was nominated as member of the NCW in August 2015 and given additional charge as chairperson of the Commission in 2017. She was later confirmed in the post. At NCW, Sharma conducted 50 enquiries into issues related to women, particularly desertion by NRI husbands.

She resigned from NCW in August after nine years at the panel. "Coming from a humble background to now finishing three terms in the NCW, I think I have walked a long way," she said when retiring.

As NCW chief, Sharma was often accused by opposition parties of going soft on crimes against women in the BJP-ruled states, a charge she always denied. Most recently she was accused of not doing enough on the issue of violence against women in strife torn Manipur.