Santosh Gangwar

Some Lesser Known Facts About Santosh Gangwar

• Santosh Kumar Gangwar grew up in a middle-class family in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh.

• He suffers from vitiligo, a chronic autoimmune disorder that causes patches of skin to lose pigment or color.

• During his college years, he became active in the student politics.

• He stepped into politics during the emergency in India and was sent to jail for leading a popular movement against the then Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi and her government.

• Soon, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and started working in its State working committee in Uttar Pradesh.

• He contested his first Lok Sabha Elections in 1981 from Bareilly on a ticket from the Bharatiya Janata Party, but lost.

  

• He again contested the elections from Bareilly in 1984, but again lost.

• He has represented the Bareilly Parliamentary constituency in the Lok Sabha 8 times, starting from 1989.

  

• While holding the charge of the Textiles Ministry, Gangwar worked towards helping the oppressed section of society like weavers and craftsmen.

• During his tenure in the Ministry of Finance, he served as a member of the GST Council and was instrumental in the successful rolling out of GST in India.

• Before stepping into politics, Santosh was involved in the establishment of the Urban Cooperative Bank in Bareilly. In 1996, he was appointed as the chairman of the Urban Cooperative Bank.

• In Bareilly, he has worked on the construction of several projects like the Chaupala Railway Station in Bareilly, State Art Library, Mini Bypass.

• He has worked in the governance in various ministries including Finance, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Parliamentary Affairs, Science & Technology, Labour & Employment, Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises, Textiles and Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.

  

• He has also served as a member of the Court of the Aligarh Muslim University and the Governing Body of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (I.C.A.R.).

• Before her demise in 2024, his wife used to actively campaign for Santosh Gangwar.

• He actively participates in social work.

• During the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party denied a ticket to Santosh Gangwar and instead fielded former UP minister Chhatrapal Singh Gangwar from the Bareilly Lok Sabha seat in UP. This caused an internal rift within the party’s UP unit.

• On 27 July 2024, President Droupadi Murmu appointed him the Governor of Jharkhand.