DH News Service, Thiruvananthapuram: It is after a gap of 48 years that a woman from the Scheduled Caste community is making it to the Lok Sabha from Kerala, and for that reason, the stunning victory of Ramya Haridas at Alathur constituency in Kerala rejuvenates the hopes of upliftment of women from Scheduled Castes.

Thirty-two-year-old Ramya Haridas is the second Dalit woman from Kerala to win the Lok Sabha elections after CPI’s Bhargavi Thankappan in 1971 from Adoor constituency, which is now part of Pathanamthitta.

Ramya’s victory, with a stunning margin of 1.59 lakh votes against sitting MP P K Biju of CPM, is sweet revenge on those who unleashed ugly attacks against her during electioneering. She is also the only woman who won from Kerala this time.

“I won’t allege that the personal attacks against me during the electioneering were because I am a woman from the Dalit community. But those who attacked me obviously know my background,” Ramya told DH. Ramya said that one of her priorities would be the uplift of the Dalit colonies in her constituency.

“I firmly believe that my party chose me considering my work and I will rise to the party’s expectations,” she said.

Sunny M Kapicaud, a social activist and writer in Kerala, said that questions were already being raised on whether Ramya would perform well in Parliament. He said these were casteist attempts to frame that Ramya will not perform well as she is a Dalit.

“Ramya has already proved that she is a sensible person. Her victory would boost more Dalit women to come to the forefront. The long gap for Dalit women from Kerala in making it to the Parliament was due to male domination in politics as well as neglect towards Dalits,” he said.

Daughter of a daily wage worker and a tailor, Ramya was among the financially weak candidates in the fray with personal assets amounting to Rs 22,816. Ramya’s wellwishers even initiated an “election fund challenge” through social media to meet her electioneering expenses.

She was serving as the president of Kunnamangalam block panchayat at Kozhikode before she decided to contest the Lok Sabha elections.

She resigned from this post even before the results came out and started working for Alathur constituency, which comprises of parts of Thrissur and Palakkad districts in central Kerala.

Ramya, who did pre-primary education and fashion design courses after her tenth grade, was handpicked by Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Her electioneering grabbed a lot of attention as she sang, especially folk songs, at the events.

CPM leader A Vijayaraghavan even had made a lewd remark about Ramya in the run-up to the election, that she first met IUML leader P K Kunhalikutty (who has faced sexual harassment charges) after her candidature was announced.