Najma Akbar Ali Heptulla (born 13 April 1940) is an Indian politician. She is the Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia since 2017. She was a six time member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament, between 1980 and 2016, and Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha for sixteen years when she was a member of Congress. Later she was nominated vice-president of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2012, and was a minister from 2014-2016 as a member of BJP in Narendra Modi's first government. From 2016 to 2021, she served as the 16th Governor of Manipur. She is a second cousin to actor Aamir Khan and grand niece of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. She contested the 13th vice-presidential election held in August 2007 but lost to Hamid Ansari by 233 votes. She took oath as a cabinet minister in the Narendra Modi headed government on 26 May 2014 and was replaced by Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi in July 2016. Early life and background Najma was born as Sayyida Najma bint Yusuf on 13 April 1940 in Bhopal, Bhopal State, in present Madhya Pradesh to Sayyid Yusuf bin Ali AlHashmi and Sayyida Fatima bint Mahmood. She is a Dawoodi Bohra Ismaili Shia Gujarati Muslim with Arab ancestry, as traced by her ancestral roots in the Arabian peninsula as well as Gujarat state. She did her schooling at Motilal Vigyan Mahavidyalaya (MVM) Bhopal, and obtained an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. degree, both in Zoology (Cardiac Anatomy) from Vikram University, Ujjain. She married Akbar Ali Akhtar Heptulla in 1966, and has three daughters. Her husband, Akbar Ali Akhtar Heptulla, a manpower consultant, was instrumental in the establishment of the Patriot newspaper in the 1960s. He died on 4 September 2007, in New Delhi at the age of 75. Career She steadily climbed up in the Indian National Congress party, heading several divisions of the party's grassroots organisations. She was the General Secretary of Congress during 1986 with the additional responsibility of youth activities of the All India Congress Committee and the NSUI. Since 1980, she was a member of the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra for four terms, elected in 1980, 1986, 1992, 1998 as Congress candidate. Najma was the Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha from January 1985 to January 1986 and from 1988 to July 2004. Heptulla joined Bharatiya Janata Party in 2004. Media sources reported that she left