As poll battle for the right to rule next in India begins on Monday in Assam and Tripura, Madha Patkar is perhaps the only non-political candidate that every non-political voter in India would wish to win from North-East Mumbai. In the traditionally Congress constituency, she happens to be the first to contest on an Aam Aadmi platform that is fighting both Congress and BJP. Surprisingly,  Medha has support from both the rich and the poor.

Ms Patkar, who will be 60 on December 1 this year, is an unassailable leader of the people’s movements  in the country. Born In Gujarat but brought up in Mumbai, she is a  product of Tata Institute of Social Science. She plunged into social work right from an early age and ultimately formed the Narmada Bachao Andolan to fight for the affected tribals.

A member of the World Commission on Dams, she sat in judgment of some of the world’s largest dams including China’s Three Gorges. As national convener of the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), Medha is India’s best known fighter for people’s rights. “There is no doubt that she will be an asset to the new Lok Sabha,” says her best friend and activist  Arundhati Roy.

In Mumbai North- East, Medha is facing a three cornered contest—with the sitting NCP MP Sanjay Dina Patil on one side and BJP’s Kirit Somaiya on the other. Whether in plush housing complexes or Dharavi-like slums, Medha is being received with great awe and wonder as if she is a new avatar from the skies. Most of them know her as their “dear Didi”.

I had occasions to meet her during some of her infrequent visits to Kerala either to the anti-coke satyagraha in Palakkad or the anti-dam stir in Athirapally in Thrissur distirct. I do remember her laying the foundation stone of Kerala’s unique institution, Sal Sabeel Green School at Kiraloor in the suburb of Thrissur. She was back there for the NAPM convention in November 2012.

Interesting that a team from the Sal Sabeel Green School travelled  to Mumbai North-East to join the campaign. “She is radiating with energy when she speaks of people’s issues. Wherever she goes, people of all walks of life rush to her with their grievances hoping that one day she could raise them in the Parliament ,” they say. “She is so inspiring that some of us will tread her very path in future,” a participating student told ‘E-Malayalee’.

The most coveted meeting was at Narmada Valley itself where she invited media persons from around the country for a national consultation a few years back. She took us for a n extensive tour of the Valley where she introduced us to the unseen world of the valley’s tribal folk unsettled by the prospect of inundation by the rising waters of the dam when it is completed. She took us across the Narmada to the Jeevan Shalas she had setup to educate their children for life’s challenges ahead. The very name Jeevan Shala meant Life School.  

Born in the land of the Mahatma, is she a true Gandian?  In  most ways she is. Better to call her a true grass root level democrat who knows the aspirations of the aam aadmi  to rise and be part of a new and modern India with engineers, doctors, technocrats, social workers, lawyers, all at the  service of the aam aadmi. That is the message she is trying to convey to her myriad voters in North-East Mumbai.

I saw Didi working very late in night in Narmada Valley.  She did just had a few winks before  rising at 4.40 in the morning to browse the mail that had arrived from different parts of the world. She sleeps in the open, eats her food along with her village folk. Eats very little, just to sustain herself for the grueling day ahead. May be a true Gandhi of the 21st century.

I wish her the very best for a triumphant entry to  Parliament before which she has done an untold number of satyagraha.