Who is Navya Haridas, the 'accidental' politician challenging Priyanka Gandhi
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded Navya Haridas as its candidate for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat in the upcoming bypolls. She will be pitted against Congress candidate Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is making her electoral debut from Wayanad. Haridas, a Kozhikode municipal corporation councilor and state general secretary of BJP's Mahila Morcha, was surprised at her nomination. "I got an official confirmation only after my ticket was announced on news channels," she told The Indian Express.
'My plan was to return to Singapore if I lost'
In a previous interview, Haridas told the newspaper that she became an accidental politician while on holiday with her children in Kozhikode in 2015. "It was election time, and the BJP approached me with a ticket, considering my family's Sangh Parivar background. I was fielded from the general seat in the corporation. Overnight, I became the candidate. My plan was to return to Singapore if I had lost," Haridas told the daily.
Haridas's political journey and focus on Wayanad's issues
She won a councilor seat that election and was re-elected in 2020. Although she lost in the 2021 Assembly elections from Kozhikode South constituency, she increased the BJP's vote share. An engineering graduate, she worked with HSBC Bank as a software professional for two-and-a-half years. She got married to marine engineer Shobin Shyam in 2009 and relocated to Singapore. There, she went on to work for various software companies.
BJP announces candidates for other Kerala bypolls
Apart from Haridas, the BJP has announced candidates for other Kerala bypolls. C Krishnakumar will contest from Palakkad, while K Balakrishnan will contest from Chelakkara. BJP state president K Surendran was optimistic about the party's prospects in Kerala. He said they would get assembly representation after these bypolls. The by-poll in Wayanad is set to take place on November 13.
