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.
This story is from the November 21, 2024 edition of Outlook.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the November 21, 2024 edition of Outlook.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
No Singular Self
Sudarshan Shetty's work questions the singularity of identity
Mass Killing
Genocide or not, stop the massacre of Palestinians
Passing on the Gavel
The higher judiciary must locate its own charter in the Constitution. There should not be any ambiguity
India Reads Korea
Books, comics and webtoons by Korean writers and creators-Indian enthusiasts welcome them all
The K-kraze
A chronology of how the Korean cultural wave(s) managed to sweep global audiences
Tapping Everyday Intimacies
Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo departs from his outsized national cinema with low-budget, chatty dramedies
Tooth and Nail
The influence of Korean cinema on Bollywood aesthetics isn't matched by engagement with its deeper themes as scene after scene of seemingly vacuous violence testify, shorn of their original context
Beyond Enemy Lines
The recent crop of films on North-South Korea relations reflects a deep-seated yearning for the reunification of Korea
Ramyeon Mogole?
How the Korean aesthetic took over the Indian market and mindspace
Old Ties, Modern Dreams
K-culture in Tamil Nadu is a very serious pursuit for many