AN ESTEEMED FACULTY

School teachers as well as professors of business, computer science and cultural studies, they got out of classrooms, stepped into the hurly burly of politics and have landed first-time Lok Sabha success

- Dhaval S. Kulkarni, Jumana Shah, Arkamoy Datta Majumdar and Aparmita Das

ANGOMCHA BIMOL AKOIJAM, 57 | CONGRESS | Inner Manipur, Manipur

Angomcha Bimol Akoijam, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, wears many hats. The Meitei academic from Manipur is also a filmmaker and, if you ask his mother, had a brighter future as a musician. Indeed, in a viral video, he was seen singing a song by the rock band Scorpions. Known for his expertise in social/ political psychology and cultural studies, his was a strong voice from Manipur in the national media during the Meitei-Kuki-Zo ethnic conflict. Critical of the government’s role, he accused the Indian Army and Assam Rifles of bias and documented the media’s alleged prejudice against Meiteis. His victory over the BJP’s Thounaojam B.K. Singh accounting for 47 per cent vote share in the Meiteidominated seat reflected popular dissatisfaction.

RABINDRA NARAYAN BEHERA, 61 | BJP | Jajpur (SC), Odisha

Rabindra Narayan Behera will have a story to tell all his life. The debutant MP lost to Sarmistha Sethi of the BJD by 496 EVM votes. But when postal ballots were counted, he marched ahead with a lead of less than 2,000 votes. A professor of computer science engineering at the Synergy Engineering College in Dhenkanal, Behera has a PhD in computer science from Utkal University.

RICKY ANDREW J. SYNGKON, 52 | VOICE OF THE PEOPLE PARTY | hillong (ST), Meghalaya