Trans woman challenges Indian PM in his own backyard

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces an unlikely electoral challenge in his well-nurtured Varanasi parliamentary constituency from transgender Hemangi Sakhi, who, incidentally, is a top Hindu seer. This 47-year-old challenger is also from Modi’s home state, Gujarat.

“When will we, transgender people, sit in the Indian parliament?” asks Sakhi, getting straight to the point. It’s a simple query she poses to India’s roughly 970 million electors who will be choosing 541 candidates to represent them in the Lok Sabha or lower house of parliament in the ongoing general election.

And, if that isn’t possible, why not send a representative of the transgender community to the upper house, known as the Rajya Sabha, where businesspeople, sports, and film stars often get nominated by political parties? “Is it because they are rich and famous? Why has no transgender person been nominated to the Indian parliament to date?” she asks.

Transgenders in India are often seen begging on the streets for a living. And even worse, many among them enter prostitution as a means of survival. Sakhi wonders why this is not a matter of concern for her countrymen.

Her decision to enter the parliamentary contest is “not meant to hog the limelight but to make a difference and ensure her community people get some benefits.” However, the choice of Varanasi, which has been the prime minister’s constituency since 2014, is a “well-thought-out, strategic one.”

Sakhi has no desire to challenge Modi, who is seeking a third straight term. But her candidature against him will be noticed, not only nationally but internationally, or so she hopes. Of course, it is an electoral contest, and anything can happen.

Varanasi goes to the polls in the last phase of the seven-phased general election on June 1. The results will be out on June 4.

The announcement of Sakhi’s candidature has aroused much interest among the media and the ordinary masses. It was made by the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha (all-India Hindu Congress), a hardline Hindu group, which intended to field her as its official nominee

Sakhi told to  News that the group backed out “under tremendous pressure” from Modi’s pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party.