New Delhi: AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi is all praise for young Congress leader Ramya Haridas, who registered a stunning victory in the Lok Sabha polls from the Alathur constituency.
Priyanka has posted a video on Facebook lauding the MP-elect who is fondly called 'Alathur's Pengalootty' (Little sister of Alathur). Ramya had met Priyanka here recently during a meeting of the Congress' MP-elects.
In the video, featuring various photos from Ramya's campaign trail, Priyanka says the party is proud of the young leader who is the only woman MP from Kerala in the present Lok Sabha.
The video narrates how Ramya, daughter of a daily-wage worker, rose up to the political ranks. She started her career as a trainer in a local NGO earning Rs 600 a month. "In 2011, she met (Congress president) Rahul Gandhi through a talent search program he started in Kerala. She then became a national office bearer of the IYC and worked diligently for the party," the subtitles of the video reads. It also reveals that Rahul gave Ramya a ticket to contest the Lok Sabha polls against the wishes of some party heavyweights.
The video ends with a clip of Ramya singing 'Raghupathi Raghava Rajaram', a notable bhajan that was widely popularized by Mahatma Gandhi.
Ramya used to sing, especially folk songs, during her campaigning which was ridiculed by some Left-sympathisers on social media. The campaign had also witnessed a controversy after LDF convener A Vijayaraghavan made some sexist remarks against Ramya during an election rally. However, the election results proved that her way of campaigning had struck the right chord with the electorate. Ramya defeated two-time MP, CPM's P K Biju, by a stunning margin of 1.59 lakh votes.
