India is set to get its first woman Lok Sabha speaker with the Congress zeroing in on Water Resources Minister Meira Kumar, daughter of late former deputy prime minister and veteran Dalit leader Jagjivan Ram.
A five-time MP, Meira Kumar won from Sasaram in Bihar, while she had been elected earlier from Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.
She quit the Indian Foreign Service which took her to embassies in Spain, Britain and Mauritius, to take to politics in 1985. A law graduate, Meira Kumar also holds a masters degree in English literature.
She was a cabinet minister for social justice and empowerment in the previous Manmohan Singh government.
