TN Urban Local Body Election 2022: Meet Ganga Nayak, DMK's transgender candidate to win seat in Vellore

Ganga Nayak, who has been part of DMK for over 2 decades, won in Ward 37 in the Vellore corporation on Tuesday.

In a massive victory for the LGBTQ+ community, Ganga Nayak, a transgender candidate of the DMK, won a seat on Tuesday in the Tamil Nadu urban local body elections 2022 from Vellore. Counting of votes for the 21 municipal corporation elections in Tamil Nadu is currently underway, and it appears to be a landslide victory for the ruling DMK. So far, Ganga is the only candidate from the transgender community in Tamil Nadu to have bagged a victory in this year's local body polls.

The 49-year-old, who has served as a member of the DMK for over two decades, was nominated by the party earlier. On Tuesday, as results poured in, Ganga Nayak was declared the winning candidate in Ward No. 37 in the Vellore Municipal corporation. The DMK candidate won the corporation councillor post with a 15-vote margin. She received a total of 2,131 votes. Currently, Ganga serves as the secretary of the South India Transgender Association and is known for her social work in Vellore.

Born to daily wage workers in Vellore, Ganga Nayak has attained recognition for her social work and services towards the community. Her drama troupe, which includes 30 transgender persons, has also gained popularity over the years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ganga and her troupe, held several awareness campaigns across Vellore and other districts of Tamil Nadu.

Twitter exploded with wishes for Ganga Nayak, following her victory, with several suggesting that the win is an indication of the changing political landscape in the country.

Voting for the Tamil Nadu urban local body election 2022 was held on Saturday to pick representatives in over 12,500 wards across 21 corporations, 138 municipalities and 489 town panchayats. A total of 15 people from the transgender community across parties, including BJP and AIADMK, have contested in this year's polls, many of whom stood as independent candidates.

Jayadevi, AIADMK's transgender candidate, contested from Ward 112 in the Teynampet zone of the Chennai Corporation. She has been associated with the party for the last 15 years. Meanwhile, BJP's trans candidate Rajamma contested from Ward 76 of the Thiru Vi Ka Nagar Zone in the Chennai Corporation.