Telangana elections: After a transwoman, Bahujan Left Front fields a physically challenged candidate

Not all heroes wear capes, some wear crisp-white cotton and foray into politics.
Telangana elections 2018
Telangana elections 2018

HYDERABAD: Not all heroes wear capes, some wear crisp-white cotton and foray into politics. After creating history by allotting a ticket to Chandramukhi, the first-ever trans-woman contesting an Assembly election in India, the Bahujan Left Front has made yet another important political statement by fielding a person with a disability from its Narayankhed constituency.   

The disability isn’t the only, nor the defining, identity of M Basvaraj Patil, who is now a household name in Siddipet’s Narayankhed. The 58-year-old will probably be the first PWD contestant in Telangana’s MLA race. Rights activists are saying that the inclusion of Basvaraj Patil as a contestant ‘is a battle half won’ in ensuring social equality in elections.  

“They (BJP, TRS and Congress) may have money power, but we have people power... the power of votes,” says Patil. “All that matters is with my inclusion the stage is set for persons with disabilities to contest elections,” says Patil, whose constituency has over 10,000 persons with varied disabilities.   

“They do not care about us and so never give us tickets,” says Patil referring to bigger parties and not without reason. As a TRS member, he took part in the Telangana movement before calling it quits as he was “not duly recognised.”Patil will face TRS’s Bhupal Reddy, BJP’s Ravi Goud and Congress’ Suresh Shekar. Nevertheless, Patil is only concerned about contesting.

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