Ramya Haridas is an Indian politician and social worker, who is serving as

Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha A Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha (abbreviated: MP) is the representative of a legislative constituency in the Lok Sabha; the lower house of the Parliament of India. Members of parliament of Lok Sabha are chosen by direct Elections in I ...

(MP) from

Alathur Alathur is a town, taluk and gram panchayat in Palakkad District, Kerala, India. It is the administrative headquarters of the Alathur Taluk and is situated about 24 km from the district headquarters Palakkad through National Highway 544.Ga ...

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

, since May 2019. She is a member of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

(INC) party in the state of

and the daughter of

All India Mahila Congress All India Mahila Congress (AIMC), also referred to as Mahila Congress, is the women's wing of the Indian National Congress (INC). The most recent President was Sushmita Dev who left office in 2021. Currently Netta D'Souza heads the All India Mah ...

worker Radha. She is the only female parliamentarian to be elected from the state of Kerala in the elections of 2019. She is also the second-ever

Dalit Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the Caste system in India, castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold Varna (Hinduism), varna syste ...

woman MP to have been elected from Kerala.

Political career

Ramya began her political career in 2011 when she was shortlisted in a talent hunt programme conducted by Indian National Congress under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. She also received personal mentorship from Rahul Gandhi. Her mother, Radha's affiliation with Kerala Mahila Congress that lead Ramya's involvement in electoral politics. She started off as being a member of the Kerala Students Union and later joined the Youth Congress. She was also associated with land rights struggles through her involvement with Ekta parishad, a people's movement working for social and land reforms related issues across the country. She is the ninth women Loksabha MP from Kerala.

Elections 2019

When her candidature for 2019 elections was announced, she was serving as the Block Panchayat President for

Kunnamangalam Kunnamangalam is a growing census town located about 14 km east of Kozhikode (Calicut) city on the Calicut - Bangalore National Highway (NH 766 , Kozhikode - Kollegal). Nearby places are Koduvally, Mukkam, Chathamangalam, and Kattangal. ...

Kozhikode district Kozhikode (), or Calicut district, is one of the 14 districts in the Indian state of Kerala, along its Southwestern Malabar Coast. The city of Kozhikode, also known as Calicut, is the district headquarters. The district is 67.15% urbanised. ...

. She was the only Lok Sabha candidate from Kerala handpicked by Congress President Rahul Gandhi. In the

2019 Indian general election General elections were held in India in seven phases from 11 April to 19 May 2019 to elect the members of the 17th Lok Sabha. Votes were counted and the result was declared on 23 May. Around 912 million people were eligible to vote, and voter ...

parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, she won from Alathur (Lok Sabha constituency) with a margin of 1,58,968 votes against the

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in term ...

candidate

P. K. Biju Parayamparanbil Kuttappan Biju (born 3 April 1974) is an Indian politician. He is a former member of the Indian Parliament The Parliament of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral leg ...

. Amongst the 2019 cohort of ministers, Haridas happens to be one of the least wealthy politicians- her total assets valuing just Rs 22,816. Haridas also resorted to a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for her election expenses. It was a huge success as it raised more than Rs 10 lakhs. John Samuel, a former director of United Nations Development Programme, and also someone who was involved in raising funds for Kerala Floods Relief spearheaded her fundraising campaign that was called' Ramya Haridas Challenge Fund.

Shashi Tharoor Shashi Tharoor (; ; born 9 March 1956 in London, England ) is an Indian former international civil servant, diplomat, bureaucrat and politician, writer and public intellectual who has been serving as Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, ...

also shared her campaign appeal on his Facebook page. During her election campaign in Alathur, Haridas claims she had only three sets of dresses. By the end of her campaign, she had 56 of them, all donated by her supporters. Haridas is also a singer and she used her talent to attract voters during her election campaign. Several voters would flock to hear her sing during her campaign. She also lodged a complaint with the police against Communist party of India (Marxist) politician A Vijayaraghavan for making a sexually loaded remark about her.

Personal life

Ramya Haridas's father was a daily wage labourer and her mother was a tailor. She stays in a house allotted under the Indira Awas Yojana, a housing programme introduced by the Rajiv Gandhi government. She has finished her tenth standard along with diploma courses in early childhood education and fashion design.

References

External links

Official biographical sketch in Parliament of India website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haridas, Ramya Living people 1987 births Indian National Congress politicians from Kerala Women in Kerala politics Dalit politicians Politicians from Kozhikode India MPs 2019–present 21st-century Indian women politicians