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A resident of Bhedrapani village in Gaurella under the Korba Lok Sabha seat in Chhattisgarh attained overnight fame when she threw in her hat to contest in the election as an independent candidate.
What’s most remarkable about it is that Ms Shanti Bai Marawi is doing it without even a single rupee in her bank account, rendering her the nickname “zero balance” across her community, reported newindianexpress.com.
Her story shows the beauty of Indian democracy – that any eligible citizen, from the wealthiest to those possessing the fewest assets, can contest the Lok Sabha or state Assembly polls.
Jyotsna Mahant from Congress and Saroj Pandey from BJP – both reportedly millionaires – are in the fray in Korba.
Belonging to the Baiga community, Ms Shanti, 33, decided to contest the parliamentary polls with a “grievance” that no political parties listened to them.
Her husband Ram Kumar encouraged Ms Shanti to fight the elections as they were “unhappy” their issues were not heard and addressed by party leaders, nor were there any developments in the region.
In terms of immovable property too, she is far behind the main candidates of BJP and Congress. She has about one and a half acres of agricultural land, and just 10g of gold and 50g of silver.
They somehow arranged the prerequisite Rs12,500 ($203) security deposit for candidates.
“Besides our savings earned as farm labourers, we got some financial support from our community members and collected the sum, her husband said.
Ms Shanti, who has studied up to class 5 from a government school, said she was contesting in line with the interest of her community.
“The inhabitants of my village and the Baiga tribal population in the Gaurella Pendra Marwahi district have pledged to drum up support for me,” Ms Shanti added.
“My fight is with political heavyweights like BJP’s Saroj Pandey and Congress’ Jyotsana Mahant.”
A housewife and a mother of one, she helps her husband in his agriculture field and works as a farm labourer.
Her village is located in a terrain more than 30km from the district headquarters. It is somewhat inaccessible because of broken roads leading to her dwelling, with hardly any public transport bus or local transport facility.
Ms Shanti’s immediate aim is to change the face of her area, where the Baiga community has lived for decades. She is not a novice to what the elections are, as a few years ago, she contested for the post of sarpanch (village head) but lost.
Without a social media platform or even a Facebook or X account, it remains to be seen how she plans to carry out her election campaign.
“The inhabitants of my village and the Baiga tribal population in the Gaurella Pendra Marwahi district have pledged to drum up support for me.”
