India's Richest Woman Savitri Jindal To Contest Haryana Polls: Details

Savitri Jindal, the richest woman in India, was inducted into the Bharatiya Janata Party on March 28. Earlier a Congress member, the Jindal Group matriarch joined the saffron party in the presence of Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini and former CM Manohar Lal Khattar in Hisar. On March 27, the 74-year-old posted on X, "I am resigning from the primary membership of the Congress Party today. I will always be grateful to the Congress leadership for its support and to all my colleagues who always gave me their support and respect."

However, Jindal who expected a ticket from the party for the Haryana Assembly elections has now filed her nomination from the Hisar seat as an Independent candidate. 75-year-old Savitri, the wife of noted industrialist late OP Jindal, entered the fray against Haryana Minister and sitting MLA from Hisar Kamal Gupta.

When the BJP fielded Kamal Gupta from the Hisar Assembly segment, Savitri Jindal was asked by reporters if her contesting the seat against the ruling party would not amount to rebellion.

"It won't be considered so. I had only campaigned for my son (Naveen Jindal in the Lok Sabah polls). I have not taken any membership (of the BJP)," she had said.

Savitri Jindal joined politics in 2005 after her husband, Haryana minister Om Prakash Jindal, passed away. She contested from the Hisar constituency on a Congress ticket from where she won twice, in 2005 and 2009. During her tenure, she held the portfolios of minister of state for revenue, disaster management, rehabilitation and housing in 2006 and minister for urban local bodies in 2013. 

Who Is Savitri Jindal?

Born on March 20, 1950, Savitri Jindal grew up in Tinsukia town of upper Assam. She married Om Prakash Jindal in the 1970s, who had founded the Jindal Group, a steel and power conglomerate. OP Jindal was a minister in the Haryana Government and a member of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha from the Hisar constituency.

Mother of nine children, Jindal took over her husband's chair after his death in a helicopter crash in 2005. She was 55 years old then. She discovered a whole new world where she found herself as a politician, social activist and billionaire at the age when most grey-haired people plan to retire from household or professional duties.

According to Forbes, the group's companies were divided among their four sons, who now run them independently.
The biggest assets of the group are overseen by her Mumbai-based son Sajjan, who runs JSW Steel, among many else. Delhi-based son, Naveen, manages Jindal Steel & Power. Savitri Jindal also serves as the president of Agroha’s Maharaja Agrasen Medical College.

Growth in net worth

Savitri Jindal is India's richest woman, flaunting a net worth of  $33.6 billion. In 2023 alone, her net worth shot up $9.6 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. Her growth surpassed Mukesh Ambani, whose net worth is the highest among Asians, registered an increase of nearly $5 billion. She is the 56th richest person in the world, according to Bloomberg's latest data.

Jindal had once famously said "Women in the Jindal family remain in charge of the house while men take care of everything outside," when she entered 10 top clubs in 2021 as her net worth touched $18 billion that year. The New Delhi-based Jindal Group saw an 87% stake in worth in the last two years. The worth has reportedly ballooned by about $12 billion over the last two years.