From Panchayat To Parliament - Meet Geniben Thakor

Geniben Thakor was 37 years old when she fought and lost her first Assembly election to BJP heavyweight Shankar Chaudhary, from the Vav constituency. But that was it, it was her last defeat. She scored her first Assembly victory in 2017 from the same constituency in Gujarat defeating Chaudhary. Thakor has never looked back.

She retained Vav in the 2022 elections when her Congress party was reduced to an apologetic 17 seats. Thakor, who is often referred as ‘Lady Singham’ in her region, romped home, becoming the lone Congress Member of Parliament (MP) from Gujarat. She will represent the Banaskantha district in the Lok Sabha.

Her journey from Panchayat to Parliament is an inspiration of sorts for the people. Thakor resorted to crowdfunding considering that she comes from a not-so-financially sound background, and also due to the fact that the Congress’ accounts were frozen.

Meanwhile, there was no dearth of money for her opponent Dr. Rekha Chaudhary, who had the backing of Shankar Chaudhary, chairman of Banaskantha District Cooperative Milk Federation, the annual turnover of which is over Rs 18,000 crore.

Amidst allegations by her camp that the BJP misused the government machinery, and Chaudhary, now Speaker of the Gujarat State Assembly, threw his might behind Dr Rekha by breaking protocol, Thakor romped home by a margin of over 30,000 votes.

“‘Banas ni Ben, Geniben, Congress zindabad’” slogans reverberated in the Congress headquarters in Ahmedabad. Thakor was felicitated in a never before programme seen in the recent history of the party.

It was due to Thakor that the Congress broke the decade-long jinx and stopped the BJP from claiming a hat-trick win in all the 26 Lok Sabha seats of Gujarat. The way she was felicitated reflected how important the win is for the Congress in the BJP’s model state.

Thakor thanked the people of Banaskantha, the region which mainly depended on cattle rearing and the dairy industry. “We had told the masses that votes alone won’t do. We will require money as well,” she said adding “People have given ‘mameru’.” In Gujarat, the ‘mameru’ ceremony is done by the bride's maternal uncle by giving gifts and money before the wedding.

Till recently people went to give Rs 2,000-Rs 3,000 to Thakor saying that the collection was done in her name so it should be given to her. It wasn’t a large sum, but money continued to come during the election campaign and people even donated as little as Rs 2. “Normally, people line up to get money from politicians and here people used to line up to give money to me,” the MP-elect said.

For Thakor, who fought and won her first Panchayat election at just 18 years of age, the Congress’ leaders are her role model. She has been publicly acknowledging Rajiv Gandhi’s initiative of 33 per cent reservation for women in panchayats. People may change, but Thakor says is in the party because of her Gandhian ideology. Out of the nine elections she contested in her career so far, she lost only one.

Her interests are politics and social work. She advocates for girls’ education, and alcohol de-addiction. She has conducted mass marriages as well for her community. In the past, Thakor’s statement against love marriage was misunderstood. “What I meant was that a nod of parents from both sides is required,” she had then clarified.

Thakor has also been advocating for lesser use of mobile phones by girls so that they can concentrate on their studies. “Geniben has an easy-going nature and appreciates if the deadlines she has set are followed,” said Gulabsinh Rajput, former Congress MLA from Tharad, who was one of the key persons in Thakor’s election team.

Unlike in several cases where the spouse and family members come in limelight, in Thakor’s case her husband Nagji, and 30-year-old son Ashok, seldom come in front of the camera. “They do help Geniben during the elections, but otherwise they do not come in the limelight,” observed Arvind Chanchani, her secretary.

“My father helped me till I got elected to taluka panchayat. Thereafter, neither my father has interfered nor my husband. I take the decisions, I seek votes and I answer to the public,” Thakor said.

During her young days, Thakor helped her father in the fields. Her mother was a homemaker. From her husband’s side also, they are not big-time farmers. It was in 2020 that Thakor finished her graduation through distance education.

The story is that for the first time when she became an MLA, she did not have two pairs of good sarees. She would wash the saree at night and wear the same the next day. Pink is her favourite colour and in any saree that she wears there will be a bit of pink in it.

She wore a pink saree when she met the Congress leadership, including Sonia Gandhi, after the victory. She wore pink when she was felicitated by the Congress in Ahmedabad.

Thakor does not find time away from politics and social work. However, when she does, she loves to visit Lord Dwarkadheesh in Dwarka for darshan.

At 49, Thakor now moves to the Parliament. However, she has one wish. She would love to be back in the Gujarat Assembly as a member of the ruling party. Congress has been out of power in Gujarat for almost three decades. “It will be nice to be in the ruling party,” she observed. “It does not matter, you make me sit as MLA,” she told Congressmen.

“Geniben has all the qualities of becoming a public servant,” observed Shaktisinh Gohil, Gujarat Congress president and Rajya Sabha MP. Thakor looks up to him as an elder brother and said that she would miss him in the Parliament when his term ends in mid-2026.

He, however, said that by then Thakor would have made friends. “She is good at PR,” he quipped.