JOIN US'People are not fools, this is democracy'
When he beat his rival Pookunji Koya of the NCP by 2,198 votes in Lakshadweep, he was only avenging his father’s defeat.
“My father represented Lakshadweep from 1967 to 2004. But in 2004 he lost by 71 votes.I was very determined to get the seat back to the Congress party. Lakshadweep developed when the Congress was in power at the Centre,” says Sayeed. But his political entry was not planned. “I was planning to go to the UK for my master’s degree in Law. Then my father passed away, and the people wanted me to continue his work,” he says. Sayeed took various responsibilities in the party such as NSUI general secretary, Youth Congress legal cell adviser and AICC member.
Sayeed says the win did not come to him just because of his father’s legacy. “If you have a platform, it will help you in the beginning, but if you don’t prove your mettle, people will reject you. I worked hard. I tried to analyse and solve their problems to the best of my ability. Nobody can say it came to me on a platter,” he explains.
Did his opponents try to make an issue out of his age? “They said I am inexperienced, and that I don’t know my politics. My contention was when my father contested elections for the first time in 1967, he was 25, one year younger than me. If he could come at 25 and sustain for 40 years, why not me? And the people were convinced,” Sayeed adds.
Sayeed who looks up to Rahul Gandhi for inspiration argues for the youth. “Youth constitutes the majority of our population. So it’s only right they are getting the chance. A 25-year-old man can do something which a 75-year-old cannot do and vice versa. There should be both,” says the young MP.
Health, education, employment, agriculture, fisheries and transport will be the areas of his focus, he says.
On dividing his time between Lakshadweep and Delhi, he says: “If I stay here and sleep in the house, they will vote me out next time. People are not fools today. This is democracy. Sayeed is setting himself up for a long haul and is very sure of how to go about it.”