Meera Sanyal, top banker-turned-politician, who contested the Mumbai South seat in the last two Lok Sabha elections, passed away on Friday evening at her South Mumbai residence. She was 57.
The former country head of Royal Bank of Scotland, Sanyal was battling cancer for over two years, and is survived by her husband and two children. Her colleagues from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said the funeral would be a private affair.
Sanyal, a rare instance of an accomplished business honcho from Mumbai quitting the rat race to pursue social activism and foray into politics, was the daughter of much-decorated naval officer Vice Admiral Gulab Mohanlal Hiranandani. A book she had penned on the adverse effects of the demonetisation of high-value currency notes on the Indian economy, was released just two months ago.
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A Harvard Business School alumnus, she took a plunge into politics in 2009, when she contested the Lok Sabha polls as an independent candidate from Mumbai South. She later gravitated towards the India Against Corruption movement that erupted across the country in 2011-12, hung up her boots as a banker in 2013 and eventually joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) formed by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
She contested the 2014 LS election as an AAP candidate from Mumbai South, where she won more than 40,000 votes and finished fourth. She was a key part of AAP’s economic policy wing.
“Extremely sad to hear this. No words to explain,” Mr. Kejriwal said on Twitter, reacting to her demise.
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“She was a great source of energy and her inputs helped the party across the country as well as in Maharashtra,” said Ruben Mascarenhas, National Joint Secretary, AAP.
Tributes also poured in from economists and bankers across the spectrum late evening as Sanyal was a revered professional in both her adopted roles of banking and politics. She had begun her career three decades ago as a planning officer at ANZ Grindlays, followed by stints at Lazard and ABN Amro Bank, where she rose to become the Chief Financial Officer for their Indian operations. She was subsequently made the bank’s Chief Operating Officer for Asia.