He has been contesting elections — from municipal to Lok Sabha polls — for the past 22 years, but Ajay Pali, 45, whom people from Kawardha town in Chhattisgarh’s Kabirdham district call Baba, is giving it his best shot — again.
Having lived and grown up in this sleepy town along the Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh border, Mr. Pali has never won an election, and has been affiliated to a party only once. But he’s preparing to contest the 2023 Assembly poll from the Kawardha seat as an Independent candidate.
His main message is that “the poor too have a voice”, and he’d like to have his heard. On Friday, he broke two thekuas, the Chhattisgarhi word for earthen piggy banks, in which he drops a part of his daily income, for poll expenses. The first expense is the form that he plans to fill and submit on October 16.
