For Priya Saroj, the smile that her father, Tufani Saroj, flashed at her as she stepped out with her winner’s certificate felt sweeter than the electoral victory. Back home, her mother was waiting for her, foregoing food and water. “That hug, that kiss on the forehead, those tears…,” Saroj’s words trailed off.
Saroj’s mother, who studied only till class 8, has been her role model. Her father used to be in Delhi most of the time to fulfil his parliamentary duties.
As a child, Saroj had seen caste wars around her. Her grandfather had been forced out of his ancestral village. Yet, politics, for her, was never just the means to change. She was a law student and the Constitution was her guiding light. The Samajwadi Party MP understood that most of the questions that a legislator had to deal with were legal, and the answers were to be found within the Constitution. She always carries a small copy of the Constitution with her.
Saroj, 25, was herself during the election campaign. Slipping easily into the language and the idioms of Machhlishahr, she endeared herself to the electorate, and on the polling day, got 35,850 more votes than her closest rival.
As a parliamentarian, she has only modest dreams. Good schools, good hospitals, functional roads and uninterrupted water and electricity supply are at the top of her agenda.
And if ever the world were to get too much for her, she would play with her two nephews, do some cooking, and even some freestyle dancing.