Why Anusuiya Uike's name is surfacing as possible presidential candidate

Anusuiya has served as Minister for Women and Child Development in Arjun Singh's Cabinet in MP and as a member of various commissions at the national level

As the tenure of the country's 14th President Ram Nath Kovind is ending in July, many names for presidential candidates are doing the rounds.

One such name is Anusiya Uike, who is the Chhattisgarh Governor and a tribal leader.

Born in Rohana Kala village in Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara district, Anusuiya has seen many ups and downs in life.

Right from school, she was interested in social and political activities.

Anusuiya has tried different levels to work for the uplift of the tribals.

She is a post-graduate in economics and worked as a lecturer in the university. At that time, she entered politics.

In 1985, she was elected to the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly from Damua and after that there was no looking back.

In 2006, she became a member of the Rajya Sabha.

She served as Minister for Women and Child Development in Arjun Singh's Cabinet in MP and as a member of various commissions at the national level.

She took many steps for the uplift of the tribals. She was conferred the 'Jagruk (vigilant) MLA' award and also the Bhim Rao Ambedkar fellowship.

According to tribal representative Gulzaar Singh Markam, Anusuiya has worked for the uplift of the tribals and that is the reason that the people of the community respect her.

Whenever she got an opportunity to work for the tribals, she neither hesitated, nor stepped back.

Her work for the tribals can be understood from the fact that for the empowerment of the women of the tribal community, she visited more than 80 districts in 22 states, made a report and submitted it to then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Political analyst Girija Shankar says that the "presidential post may be constitutional but the process for the presidential election is political. That is the reason that names are decided on the basis of political compulsions."

"Abdul Kalam Azad was made the President due to political compulsion. The same was the case when Ram Nath Kovind was elected President and if Anusuiya Uike's name will be suggested, it will also be only due to that," he said.

Elaborating further, Girija Shankar said that the "political scenario in our country is like if a large community is not connected with the stream of development, then symbolically a person from the community is given a plum post to show that work has been done for the development of the community, but actually things are different."

"It is just to show that minorities are also included in the mainstream. Likewise, people of the Scheduled Class and Scheduled Tribes are entrusted with a big responsibility," he added.

--IANS

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