BMC polls: Youngest candidate, 21, wants a clean Dharavi

Twenty-one-year-old Anusha Valpdasi’s phone does not stop ringing these days, but she hardly gets time to attend every call.

The third-year biotech engineering student of Mahatma Gandhi College in Panvel, is busy with her practical assignments but she is preparing for her biggest assignment. Valpdasi is the youngest candidate in the BMC election.

Debuting in the political arena, Valpdasi is a Shiv Sena candidate from ward number 176, Dharavi-transit camp, reserved for OBC woman. “I am deeply indebted to my leaders, Sena chief Bal Thackeray and executive president Uddhav Thackeray, for giving me this responsibility. My only aim is to see Sena victorious,” she said. Valpdasi, an activist from Sena’s youth wing Yuva Sena, is one of the 96 new faces that the party has fielded in the election.

A Dharavi resident, Valpdasi’s priority if she wins, is to clean up the sewage and waste in the area. “The Congress has been ruling the ward for years now. They have done nothing to give citizens a clean and healthy environment. Being a student, I know how important education is for every child and I will work for that,” she said.

The Sena candidate has one more year of education left.