Ramya Haridas

Ramya Haridas is second Dalit women MP from the state of Kerala representing Alathur, since May 2019.

She is a member of the Indian National Congress.

She is the only female parliamentarian to be elected from the state of Kerala in the elections of 2019.

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

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

In the 2019 Indian general election to parliament, she won from Alathur with a margin of 1,58,968 votes against the CPIM candidate P. K. Biju.

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 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 againstPIMsleaderan A Vijayaraghavan for making a sexually loaded remark about her.

Ramya Haridas's father was a daily wage labourer and her mother was a tailor.