Lakshmi Hebbalkar

Lakshmi Ravindra Hebbalkar (born 28 May 1975) is an Indian politician from Karnataka.

She is currently serving as the Minister of Women and Child Development, and Disabled and Senior Citizens Empowerment in the Government of Karnataka.

As a member of the Indian National Congress, she is an elected member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from Belagavi Rural.

Lakshmi Hebbalkar was born in Chikka Hattiholi, a village in Khanapur taluk of Karnataka's Belagavi district, into an agricultural family.

She belongs to the Lingayats Sect.

She is one of five siblings.

She married agriculturist-businessman Ravindra Hebbalkar and joined the Congress party in 2004.

She holds a master's degree in political science from Mysore University.

Hebbalkar held the position of general secretary of the Karnataka Pradesh Mahila Congress Committee for a brief period before being asked to head the Belagavi District Congress Committee in 2010 as its first woman president.

She unsuccessfully contested from the Belgavi (Rural) Vidhan Sabha seat in 2013, and then from Belagavi Lok Sabha seat in 2014.

In 2015, she was appointed the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee women's wing president.

In the legislative assembly election that followed, she defeated Sanjay Patil of the Bharatiya Janata Party and was elected as a legislator first time, while contesting from the same constituency.

Hebbalkar was quizzed for two days by Enforcement Directorate in September 2019 in connection with a probe into a money laundering case.

Hebbalkar was reelected to the assembly in 2023 and was appointed the Minister of Women and Child Development as part of the Siddaramaiah ministry.