Dr. Surendra Poonia
Major -Indian Army
Major Dr. Surendra Poonia, VSM is an international award-winning sportsman, Limca book record holder, physician, former Special Forces officer of the Indian Army, founder of Soldierathon marathon,[1] Fit Bharat and a politician of Bharatiya Janata Party. He is the first Indian athlete with the rare distinction of having won medals in power-lifting and athletic events in four consecutive world championships. He was born on 1 January 1977 in a farmer family in Sikar, Rajasthan. He is a graduate of the AFMC, Pune.
Poonia is an alumnus of the Armed Forces Medical College, [3] Pune (AFMC Pune) and Jawahar
Navodaya Vidyalaya(JNV), Patan, Sikar, Rajasthan. Currently, he is an active alumni in JNV Sikar.[4] He was commissioned into the Army Medical Corps in August 2001. He served with The President’s Bodyguard[5] at Rashtrapati Bhawan, Special Forces and United Nation’s peacekeeping mission in Democratic Republic of Congo.
[6] Major Surendra Poonia joined the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) on 23 March before 2019 Lok Sabha General election.[7] After joining the party, Poonia tweeted stating, “I have joined the Bharatiya Janata Party to serve the nation and our people. It is a great honour for me to support and stand with the idea of ‘Nation First’ against the idea of ‘Family First’ from party’s platform which is led by the honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”