Despite losing the election on a BJP ticket against Congress’s Shafi Parambil from Kerala’s Palakkad constituency, his hometown, Metroman E Sreedharan has fulfilled his promise of providing electricity connection to all families in the municipality.
During the election trail, the 88-year-old had assured the residents of Palakkad Municipality’s Maduraveeran colony that “whether or not he wins, all families in the area will get power connections”. The residents had approached him with a complaint that a few Scheduled Caste (SC) families in Ward 3 of the municipality did not have the power supply, while it was stopped for others due to arrears.
Despite defeat in Kerala election, Metroman Sreedharan fulfilled his poll promise & paid Rs 81,525 to clear electricity bill of poor SC families.
Other side, Mysuru vegetable farmers still waiting for Kerala CPIM govt to clear payment of Rs 54.23 lakh in dues since December 2020
— Anshul Saxena (@AskAnshul) May 20, 2021
A couple of weeks later after the election results were announced, the technocrat on May 18 (Tuesday) wrote a cheque of Rs 81,525 in the name of the Assistant Engineer, KSEB, Kalpathy, to clear the arrears of the SC families. He handed over the cheque to the engineer at a function organised by BJP district president E Krishnadas. Ward councillor V Natesan, Palakkad municipal standing committee chairman P Smithesh and ASHA worker Semina were also part of the event.
E Sreedharan had lost the election by the barest of margins (4,000 votes) and any other candidate in his place would have been dejected and stopped checking up on the people of his constituency. However, Sreedharan, who changed the face of the national capital with his meticulous handling of the entire metro project, did not forget his promise and returned to fulfil it.
The public usually remembers such acts of compassion as had happened with Smriti Irani in Amethi. The BJP leader contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election against Congress scion Rahul Gandhi from Amethi but lost it rather comprehensively. However, she did not leave the field and continued to serve the public of the constituency in her limited capacity for the next five years. Eventually, Rahul Gandhi was decimated in the 2019 General election from the same seat and Smriti Irani emerged as the one true chosen leader of the public.
Most politicians around the country take to the streets and visit their constituency voters, once every five years. They make promises, some attainable but mostly pipe dreams, cash in on the votes and disappear. However, Metroman E Sreedharan, who joined BJP to kickstart his political career, has deviated from the normal and shown that not all who take up the profession conform to the age-old, archaic stereotypes.
