First openly transgender mayor gets elected from Raigarh

Nine months after the Supreme Court recognized transgender as a legal third gender, Madhu Bai Kinner, a transgender living in Raigarh, Chhattisgarh, was elected as the Mayor of the town. She won against a candidate from the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by more than 4,500 votes according to a report by PTI.

According to a report by TIME, in a statement, the newly elected mayor said, “People have shown faith in me. I consider this win as love and blessings of people for me. I’ll put in my best efforts to accomplish their dreams… It was the public support that encouraged me to enter the poll fray for the first time and because of their support only, I emerged as the winner.”

Mayor of Raigarh: Madhu Bai Kinner
Picture By: Dazed

Coming from the Dalit community, Madhu Bai has become the first transgender mayor in the country’s history. Before this, on two different occasions, two others were elected to the same post but were asked to step down as the seats were reserved for women. According to reports, Madhu Bai funded her electoral campaign by working as a singer and dancer on Howrah-Mumbai trains in 2014, and only stopped when she was asked to represent her local community.

According to a report by Independent, Raigarh district Congress President Narendra Negi said, "There was no Modi wave in Raigarh this time. People of Raigarh were fed up with the corruption of BJP, hence they voted for Madhu. It is not Madhu Kinnar’s victory, but it’s a loss of BJP." Despite all these statements, her election to the post of Mayor is a huge win for the LGBT community.

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