Thiruvananthapuram: After a row erupted over Youth Congress workers in Kerala buying a car for Alathur Congress MP Ramya Haridas, she announced yesterday that she will not accept the gift.
Initially when the workers decided to gift her a car through crowdfunding, Ramya, lone woman Lok Sabha member from the State, said she was happy and proud about the Youth Congress’ decision. The party members had planed to crowdfund among Congress workers and not from the general public. It was also decided that the Opposition leader in the Kerala Assembly would hand over the keys of the car to the MP on 9 August, which is the foundation day of Youth Congress.
However, she received flak for it. KPCC President Mullappally Ramachandran said if he was in her position, he wouldn’t accept the gift, as the money was being crowdfunded and that it was unfair.
Following this, the MP announced that she would listen to her party chief as it was the party that had given her the post and helped her achieve.
According to a media report, Haridas had said that many people had offered a vehicle to her, but she had refused all of them as they lacked transparency. But in this situation, the fund is not collected from public and so account would be transparent.
Haridas is the second woman Dalit MP from Kerala after Bhargavi Thankappan of the CPI who had won in 1971 from Adoor seat.