RAIGARH-
India elected its first transgender in local government on Sunday as the Mayor of Raigarh Municipal Corporation in its central state of Chhattisgarh, reported Indian media.
Madhu Kinnar, an independent candidate was up against a candidate of the federally-ruling Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) for the the Mayoral election. She won the election by 4,537 votes against BJP’s Mahaveer Guruji, an election official said.
According to the report, Madhu (real name is Naresh Chauhan) is from the ‘untouchable’ Dalit community of the Indian caste system.
Previously, Madhu used to sing and dance in trains to earn a livelihood.
“I only spent Rs. 60,000-70,000 from my earnings during my campaign. 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,” Madhu was quoted by the report.
In April last year, Indian Supreme court legalized a third gender, granting the estimated 3 million transgender Indians with the option to identify as something other than male or female.
In September 2014, a news station Lotus News featured the country’s first transgender news anchor Padmini Prakash .