BJP Fields Polyglot Woman as Its Nominee from Kasargod LS Segment in Kerala

She is a school teacher, who quit her job and became the national level member of BJP Mahila Morcha. Meet ML Ashwini from Manjeshwara in Kerala, who mastered six languages, which made the BJP allocate the Kasargod Lok Sabha seat to her as the party hopes that talent will be useful to connect directly with the voters.

Hyderabad: The BJP, which wants to gain a foothold in Kerala in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, is fielding candidates after a lot of scrutiny. As part of that, in the Kasaragod constituency, which is a stronghold of the Communists, it allocated a ticket to a woman, who can speak fluently in multiple languages. BJP hopes that talent will be useful to connect directly with the voters.

To succeed in politics, you have to attract voters. Those with good speaking skills will quickly rise to the top in any field, particularly in politics. PV Narasimha Rao, who knew 16 languages at that time, became the Prime Minister. But, there are a few women, who impress with such multilingualism. But now, a woman, who is an ordinary teacher, is reaching out to the common people due to her command of six languages. Hence, the BJP leadership was pleased so much so that the party nominated her for the Kasargod Parliament seat in Kerala which many veteran leaders contested.

ML Ashwini (38) has entered the fray as a BJP candidate in the Kasaragod constituency, which has been a stronghold of the Left parties for a long time. Although the names of several senior leaders were doing the rounds, the party leadership finalised Ashwini as the BJP candidate. The main reason for that is Ashwini's mastery of six languages. Ashwini is fluent in Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Tulu, Hindi and English. The BJP leadership believes that talent will help her connect better with voters.

Who is Ashwini?

ML Ashwini from Manjeshwara in Kerala, is an ordinary school teacher. She is also a national-level member of BJP Mahila Morcha. However, the party leadership allotted the Kasaragod Lok Sabha seat to her. Because she knows six languages Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Tulu, Hindi and English.

She was born and brought up in Bengaluru with Kannada as her mother tongue, Ashwini became Kasaragod's daughter-in-law. She likes to learn languages since she is fond of English and Hindi. So, she learned Tulu from the surrounding families. Later Tamil, and after some time she also learnt Malayalam. Ashwini practices each language with her family members and has improved her language skills.

After joining BJP...

After quitting her job as a school teacher and joining the BJP, the party gave her a post as a national executive member of Mahila Morcha. Also, she was entrusted with the responsibility of carrying out activities with Mahila Morcha members in about 10 states. Mastery of language became a weapon for her.

Leaders from Kerala are fluent in languages like Malayalam or Tamil, but they are not fluent in English and Hindi. But, Ashwini's mastery of those languages became very useful. When she worked on behalf of the Mahila Morcha, starting from Jammu and Kashmir to Uttar Pradesh and Assam, the party noticed that she could easily get, along with the grassroots workers by speaking in their familiar languages.

The party noticed that she spoke fluently with Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil speakers in Kasaragod and established a good rapport with them quickly. That is why the party gave the seat to Ashwini and not district president Ravish Tantri and PK Krishnadas, a senior leader of the national representative.

Kasaragod Lok Sabha constituency includes Manjeswaram, Kasaragod, Udma, Kanhangad, Payyanur and Kalliassery Assembly constituencies in Kannur district near Trikaripur. In the 2019 parliamentary elections, BJP came third in Kasaragod.

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