Want to bring more women into politics, says AAP’s Malavika Gubbivani

Techie-turned-politician Malavika Gubbivani, the only candidate of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the election fray in the district, says she has a “dream vision” for Chamaraja constituency.

After working with the IT giant Infosys in Bengaluru and Mysuru for over 15 years, she joined the AAP four years ago with the idea of bringing about “change” in the system and carrying out social work in tune with the party’s ideology.

As a resident of the constituency, she aspired to take the electoral plunge as the party candidate, and her candidature was approved by the central leadership. With padayatras and ward-wise dialogues in the constituency, she is reaching out to the voters and laying out her vision, mission and priorities.

Her party plans to release a manifesto for women and hold dialogues in the constituency ahead of the elections. “The Chamaraja people support the kind of politics the AAP does. Moreover, I have worked for the party in the constituency. People recognise me and were supportive seeing my profile,” Ms. Gubbivani told The Hindu while taking a break from her padayatra.

Empowerment of women is one of the key issues on her agenda. She says her reason for jumping into the poll fray was to encourage more women to join politics. “We are even trying to build a women’s group in our party. More women in politics is our idea,” she said.

“Generating jobs, encouraging local talent, and introducing the AAP’s agenda — corruption-free and transparent administration — in the system is my vision. People told me about lack of jobs for the youth during my padayatra. I will try to address this issue,” she said.

When asked what set her apart from the other candidates, she said it was her accessibility. “There is a grouse among people that politicians visit them only during elections and forget them afterwards. I won’t be like that as I will be accessible to them whenever they need me,” she said.

On the response to her candidature, Ms. Gubbivani said it has so far has been encouraging. “People have expressed happiness seeing people like me contesting the polls to bringing about a change. Moreover, they want to see youth representing them,” she said.