A cavalcade of SUVs packed with party workers and supporters makes whistle stops across the small villages in Aheri taluka of Gadchiroli district in Vidarbha. It’s election time and Bhagyashree Atram has thrown her hat in the ring with her Jan Aakrosh Yatra. Her vehicle leads the motorcade and she is seated in front, reaching out to people who wish to come up to her to chat. Clad in a light blue synthetic sari, pallu drawn across her shoulders, vermillion smeared on her forehead and sunglasses pushed up so that nothing comes in the way as she looks at her electorate, she is the picture of an earnest candidate who is taking nervous steps into the electoral battle.
There are reasons for her to be jittery. She has pitted herself against a four-time MLA from the Aheri Vidhan Sabha constituency, Dharamrao Baba Atram, minister of Food and Drugs Administration in the ruling Mahayuti alliance. He also happens to be her father. “I am sure of what I am doing, and I have no regrets,” she says, brushing off the accusation that she is at the root of an unsavoury family feud.
“In 2019, my father had said that this was his last election, and I had been preparing to take up the mantle from him,” says Bhagyashree, who was the president of the Zilla Parishad, Gadchiroli, in 2011 and the Bandhkaam Sabhapati Zilla Parishad from 2016 to 2019. “It is not that I have taken him by surprise. It was understood that I would contest the elections in 2024,” she says justifying her move.
この記事は Outlook の November 21, 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Outlook の November 21, 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
IMT Ghaziabad hosted its Annual Convocation Ceremony for the Class of 2024
Shri Suresh Narayanan, Chairman Managing Director of Nestlé India Limited, congratulated and motivated graduates at IMT Ghaziabad's Convocation 2024
Identity and 'Infiltrators'
The Jharkhand Assembly election has emerged as a high-stakes political contest, with the battle for power intensifying between key players in the state.
Beyond Deadlines
Bibek Debroy could engage with even those who were not aligned with his politics or economics
Portraying Absence
Exhibits at a group art show in Kolkata examine existence in the absence
Of Rivers, Jungles and Mountains
In Adivasi poetry, everything breathes, everything is alive and nothing is inferior to humans
Hemant Versus Himanta
Himanta Biswa Sarma brings his hate bandwagon to Jharkhand to rattle Hemant Soren’s tribal identity politics
A Smouldering Wasteland
As Jharkhand goes to the polls, people living in and around Jharia coalfield have just one request for the administration—a life free from smoke, fear and danger for their children
Search for a Narrative
By demanding a separate Sarna Code for the tribals, Hemant Soren has offered the larger issue of tribal identity before the voters
The Historic Bonhomie
While the BJP Is trying to invoke the trope of Bangladeshi infiltrators”, the ground reality paints a different picture pertaining to the historical significance of Muslim-Adivasi camaraderie
Sarna Dharma
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha is keeping the Sarna Code issue alive in its election campaign, especially in tribal areas