Silvassa: The Congress on Saturday announced Ajit Ramji Mahla as its candidate for the Dadra and Nagar Haveli Lok Sabha constituency, a seat reserved for Scheduled Tribes.
In a video statement, Ajit Malha thanked the Congress’s district and national leadership for offering him a chance to serve the people of his constituency.
Malha is pitted against the Bharatiya Janata Party's Kalaben Delkar, the sitting MP, who won the by-election in 2021 as a Shiv Sena candidate after the death of her husband and then MP Mohan Delkar.
"The present MP sits at home and does not reach out to the public or go out to meet them. If given a chance, I will approach the public to hear them out to fulfil their demands," he said.
A former government school teacher, Ajit Mahla belongs to a political family and started his career as a member of the Congress’s student wing National Students' Union of India (NSUI).
He went on to become the secretary and general secretary of the NSUI.
He resigned as a teacher in 2019 to join the Congress and is active as the chairman of the Adivasi Congress of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
Hailing from the Konkana tribal community, Ajit Mahla's father Ramji Mahla was an MP from Dadra and Nagar Haveli in 1980 and was the territorial Congress committee president twice between 1984-1990 and 1998-2000.
Ramji Mahla was also the secretary and joint secretary of the Youth Congress and served as the Congress secretary between 2006 and 2010.
Published 28 May 2024, 08:37 IST