Meet The Girl Who Left High Paying Job Offers To Fight Panchayat Polls

February 14, 2015

She could have been living a comfortable life in a city with a good salary and fancy lifestyle, but she fought for her village panchayat elections instead. Here is all you need to know!

Every engineer has dreams of getting into a huge IT giant with good income and a comfortable lifestyle. Anshu Arele, a 22 year old engineer too got a chance to grab a similar opportunity where she had job offers from big companies like Infosys and IBM.

But that would have been too conventional. So she didn’t take any of those jobs and chose to stand for Panchayat elections in Bhind. It was a risk well taken as she actually won!

Photo: www.ifad.org

This IT graduate from Rustamji Institute of Technology in Tekanpur near Gwalior, is now a member of district panchayat.

Though her parents were not very open to her decision as they believed such elections are very tough and can be very provocative and complicated.

“Trust me. This is much better than Infosys or IBM. This is a platform to raise the voice of my village. I want to change the image of a backward Bhind,” she told TOI.

But all set to follow what she believed in, Arele went ahead and contested in elections with bow and arrow as her symbol. Interestingly, that was the same symbol her father had when he fought elections in 2009.

In Chambal region where mostly women stay at home and men have been dominating politics and other fields, Arele’s victory has been an amazing beginning of a new era where women play a crucial role.

“He won, but was declared defeated as election results were manipulated. I did not let it happen this time. After dilly dallying, the district administration declared me victorious on February 9,” she told TOI.

We wish Arele all the good luck for her recent success and hope for a brighter future for Bhind.