# Satish Poonia

Satish Subhashchandra Poonia (born 24 October 1964) is an Indian politician from Rajasthan. He was member of the 15th Rajasthan Assembly from Amber. He served as the state president of Bharatiya Janata Party for Rajasthan. He briefly also served as deputy leader of the opposition in Rajasthan Assembly. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

## Early life and education

Poonia was born in Rajgarh, a small village in Churu district of Rajasthan. His father, late Subhash Chandra Poonia was the former head of Rajgarh Panchayat Samiti. His mother is Parmeshwari Devi. His uncle late Ramswaroop Poonia was a freedom fighter and an associate of Chaudhary Kumbha Ram Arya, a freedom fighter of the Bikaner division and the then leader of the Praja Parishad movement. He married Mohini Poonia, a teacher by profession and together they have a son, Maheep Poonia and a daughter, Anushka Poonia.
Poonia early education was completed in Rajgarh, after which he completed his further studies from Churu. He graduated from Maharaja College in 1989. Later, he did L.L.B from Rajasthan University. He holds a diploma in labor law, criminology and Indian history and culture from Law College. In 1994, he finished M.Sc. in geography and after that did Ph.D. in geography from Rajasthan University.

## Political career
### Student politics

Poonia, influenced by the nationalist ideology of the RSS, he joined Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad in 1982. Over the next decade, he worked in ABVP as Metropolitan Co-Secretary, State Co-Secretary, Metropolitan Secretary, and Pradesh Mantri in the Unit President at Maharaja College in Jaipur.
From 1988 to 1989, he played a very important role in the student union election movement at Rajasthan University and in the educational reform movement of ABVP. In 1989, he became the General Secretary of the Student Union at Rajasthan University and led agitation against Bofors scandal, and was also jailed during this period.
In 1992, he became the state general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha and successfully organised the historic youth conference in Kota. He was made the State President of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, Rajasthan in 1998. After the Bharatiya Janata Party's defeat in Rajasthan in 1998, he undertook a 550 km padyatra from 14 March to 7 April. This was the first such journey in Rajasthan's political history and still holds the record of being the only such yatra by any politician. He took this padayatra to boost the morale of workers covering 34 assembly constituencies, 9 Lok Sabha constituencies, 225 villages.

### Mainstream politics

Poonia worked as State General Secretary in Bharatiya Janata Party, Rajasthan from 2004 to 2006 and as State Morcha in charge from 2006 to 2007. He has been the State General Secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party four times from 2004 to 2014 with various organisational responsibilities, from intensive migration from remote tribal areas to marginal desert areas, strengthening the party from village to village, and successfully led various political movements.
In the year 2011, he was the convener of senior BJP leader L.K. Advani’s Jan Chetna Yatra. In 2013, contributed to the successful running of “Suraj Sankalp Yatra 2013” by then BJP State President Smt. Vasundhara Raje. He played a very important role in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha elections of 2010 and 2015.
In the 2018 Rajasthan Legislative Assembly election, he secured victory in the Amber constituency. He defeated Prashant Sharma of the Indian National Congress (INC) by a margin of 13,276 votes.
On 5 July 2023, he was announced as the state in-charge for Haryana for upcoming assembly polls.