THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A popular television anchor has entered the electoral fray here with big dreams of making Sasthamangalam a model ward. Veena S. Nair, 26, Congress candidate, was all excited as Dr. Shashi Tharoor MP kicked off her campaign on Wednesday. It was only late on Tuesday night that her candidature from Sasthamangalam, which is now reserved for women, was confirmed by the Thiruvananthapuram DCC.
Veena, an LLM degree-holder, is the daughter-in-law of KPCC general secretary K. P. Kunjikannan who was also the former MLA from Uduma. Wife of K. P. K. Thilakan, associate architect at UST Global at Technopark, she wants to develop the local market, get rid of potholed roads, do organic farming in all houses, make school campuses drug-free and empower women. Her father M. Somashekharan Nair is working in West Asia and mother Leena is a homemaker.
“Tharoorji asked me to be a good leader. We went together for campaigning and visited a few shops and houses where he sought votes for me in the hand symbol,” she said.
She had always wanted to enter politics and was closely associated with the Association for Legal Empowerment and Rural Transformation (ALERT). She seemed to know more about the constituency than the local leaders. A resident of Sasthamangalam ward, Veena said that most houses have only two to three cents which lack space for organic farming.
“I wish to take up organic farming in all houses in the ward and those who lack space should go for vertical farming. Also, surplus vegetables being produced can be sold in the same ward,” said Veena who belongs to the Kunnil family in Sasthamangalam.
