Mangaluru (The Hindu): Seema Melwyn D’Souza quit her job as a beautician at a firm in Dubai a year ago to join her husband, Melwyn D’Souza, a former zilla panchayat member. She opened her own beauty parlour in Neerumarga later. Ms. D’Souza has now been elected as a Congress candidate from Neerumarga zilla panchayat constituency.
Meanwhile, Dhanalakshmi has been involved in the rehabilitation and rescue of distressed women and children as a volunteer at Prajnya Counselling Centre for the past 11 years.
She has been elected on Bharatiya Janata Party ticket from the Someshwara zilla panchayat constituency.
They were among the newcomers who have been elected to the Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat, when the results of the elections were announced on Tuesday.
Ms. D’Souza appears to be comfortable while speaking to reporters.
“She is yet to get a grip of things. I am here to support her,” Mr. D’Souza said.
Ms. D’Souza was elected from the same constituency from where her husband too was elected earlier. Ruling out that his wife’s candidature was a case of family politics, Mr. D’Souza said that it was proposed by party workers.
Unlike Ms. D’Souza, Ms. Dhanalakshmi does not have any political connections. “It’s my social work that was recognised and I was given ticket,” she said. Ms. Dhanalakshmi had to face a tough fight from Congress candidate Lakshmi Poojary to win from the Someshwar zilla panchayat constituency.
Delimitation
“There were problems because of delimitation of the constituency. It is for the work of our party men that I won from the constituency that has a sizeable number of people from the minority community,” she said. She defeated the Congress candidate by a margin on 515 votes.
Ms. Dhanalakshmi said she would continue to work for the needy and the oppressed classes and focus on the implementation of Centrally sponsored schemes.
Photo credit: The Hindu
