“Winning or losing is not my concern. But I wish to put up a strong fight in the Lok Sabha election on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ticket. I wish to use the opportunity to push forward a people’s agenda highlighting burning issues concerning our society. If elected, I will use Parliament to fight for the downtrodden,” said writer and activist Sara Joseph, who was in the city on Monday to appear before the candidate screening committee of the AAP.
“I appeared before an 11-member screening committee which asked me why I wanted to contest the election. The interview lasted for about two hours and I said I preferred the Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency. The final decision will be taken after a few more screening procedures. The announcement will be made in Delhi.”
Ms. Joseph said she wished to become part of a landmark movement that evolved after 65 years of independence to clean up the system. “The AAP was able to revive discussion on selfless politics that directly engages with the ordinary people. Even political parties which harmed Indian polity all these years are now showing signs of reforming only because of the challenge posed by AAP. As a socially committed journalist, I feel it is my duty to contest. See how Parliament worked all these years. There were members who were ready to go any extreme. The language they used was indecent. Agents of such anarchy turned against Arvind Kejriwal who spoke about a different anarchy of the suffering masses. Our aim is to make parliamentary discussions more meaningful and people-oriented,” she said.