In the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections, Ramakka from the Kampli Assembly constituency is the only transgender, among the more than 2,500 candidates, who will be contesting.
Ramakka, 56, who has fielded her nomination from the Desh Prem Party, says that she entered politics as it is the “right platform” to change the lives of people.
“All my life, I have been begging like many of other transgenders. No government has done anything as the population of transgenders in the state is minimal. I am hoping to bring change to their lives. I thought politics would be the right platform to do it,” she told The Indian Express.
She said that her party was recently registered with the Election Commission of India, following which she filed her nominations. She has declared assets of Rs 30,000 cash and gold ornaments worth Rs 6.7 lakh.
A total of 2,615 candidates are in fray in the May 10 elections, results for which will be known on May 13.
Born in a poor family in a village in Bellari district, she transformed into a girl at the age 14 years and started serving Huligemma, a local deity at the temple located in Munirabad of north Karnataka. She then changed her name to Ramakka from Ramaswami.
“I have spent all my life begging and also performing Jogathi dance, a folk dance form. I want to educate the transgender community,” she adds.
Ramakka says that with her political foray, she hopes to change the lives of transgenders who live in miserable condition. She said that there are 25 transgenders in the Kampli Assembly constituency, and they are conducting door-to-door campaigning.
In the 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections, Congress candidate J N Ganesh had won from the seat, reserved for Scheduled Tribes (STs) defeating BJP’s T H Suresh Babu.