In her 20s, she hopes to take on Kejriwal on a BJP ticket

As the Bhartiya Janata Party gears up to announce its batch of ticket-holders for the Delhi Battlefield, new aspirants are surfacing, ready to bear the baton. Amongst them is the young and ambitious Nupur Sharma, who is hoping for a ticket. Binjal Shah puts together a special report.

This is not just any ticket- the ticket for New Delhi to go up against AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal, as it is the constituency that she has grown up in, and feels an “inexplicable affinity towards it.” At 29 years old, with a seven year political career behind her, she is possibly the youngest woman to have escalated to this position in the party. Young she may be, but one must not mistake her as inexperienced. This qualified leader was identified by the ABVP and was thrown into the deep end of things at a rather young age- in 2008 to be precise, when she was 22 years old.

NUPUR'S RISE

She was elected as the DUSU president then, and soon found herself assuming more and more responsibilities, edging closer to mainstream politics. Serving as media co in-charge of Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha, the youth wing of the party in 2010, and an executive committee member of BJP Delhi state, she was put in the media committee for Delhi Legislative Assembly elections in 2013. As media manager, she frequented debates and discussions on the mainstream media, representing the BJP agenda.

She has her life’s next professional decade planned out in her head intricately already, and is eyeing the New Delhi ticket because she feels she has the required experience and expertise- having fought elections for student politics, and worked her way up experiencing all stages of the process.

Young women leaders - Nupur Sharma

On being asked whether she is ready to face a rather formidable opponent- Kejriwal- she told iamin, “I am more than ready for the challenge - as I strongly and sincerely believe my home constituency deserves much, much better. The constituency demands a people’s representative who lives and works amongst them and works to the best of her ability to "solve" their problems. For over 16 years now the constituency has largely remained leader-less as the two CM candidates were mostly MIA and unapproachable”

She shares a “very good friendship and rapport” with Smriti Irani Ji, Nirmala Sita Raman Ji, Arun Jaitely Ji, Sushma Ji, and finds the environment at the party very impartial and welcoming. “We have a habit of addressing everybody be it younger, senior, same age with ‘Ji’.”

She enlists her top priorities in the iamin interview. “My current major responsibility given by the National BJP youth wing (BJYM) and Delhi state BJP is to ensure increased women membership and participation in our activities, and we got 298 women to sign up in our last membership drive in Delhi. After that, I will be going to Andhra Pradesh to encourage young women below the age of 40 to join the party.”

With her plan and vision in place, she now hopes that the party will entrust her with a ticket. But she will not give up on her responsibilities in her constituency as a party member, if she is left behind this time around then my job. She intends to focus on building a strong team of young and educated women who will support the BJP and work of it.

The Interview was originally published on www.iamin.in

 Story edited by Binjal Shah