In the recent Odisha state assembly elections, the Indian National Congress came in a distant third but made history by being the first party to field a Muslim woman as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in the state.
In her electoral debut, Sofia Firdous of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was elected to the state assembly from the Barabati-Cuttack constituency, narrowly defeating Purna Chandra Mahapatra of the Bharatiya Janata Party. A difference of 8,001 votesAccording to the Election Commission of India (ECI), Firdous secured 53,339 votes while Mahapatra got 45,338 votes.
Who is Sophia Firdus?
(1) She comes from a political family; her father, Mohammed Moakim, is a senior member of the Indian National Congress in the coastal state of Afghanistan. The party fielded her after her father, who was a state assembly member from the same constituency, won the election. Convicted He was disbarred in a loan fraud case.
(2) The 32-year-old holds a civil engineering degree from Kalinga Institute of Technology, a branch of the Indian Institute of Technology (KIIT) in Bhubaneswar, the state capital, and is completing the Executive General Management Programme at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) in 2022.
(3) Last year, Sofia Firdous was elected as the President of the Bhubaneswar chapter of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Associations of India (CREDAI). She is currently also the Eastern Regional Coordinator for the CREDAI Women’s Chapter.
(4) According to her vote affidavit filed with the Election Commission of India (ECI), no criminal charges have been filed against her.
(5.) Sofia’s total assets are around ₹It has a debt of Rs 50 million. ₹2.8 million and is married to entrepreneur Sheikh Mairajul Haq.
