Big win and victory jig later, youngest Dalit MP: ‘Like moving a mountain’

Among the many videos that went viral on June 4, the day the results for the general election were announced, one stood out — that of 26-year-old Sanjana Jatav, a Congress leader and the youngest Dalit parliamentarian to be voted in this election, dancing uninhibited to the song Rajasthani song ‘Chori tane kariyo Bharatpur jaam’ to celebrate her victory.

“It wasn’t planned,” Sanjana, who beat BJP’s Ramswaroop Koli by over 53,000 votes to win the Bharatpur Lok Sabha — part of the home district of Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma and a BJP seat since 2014 — tells The Indian Express. “After the results, party workers were waiting with a DJ and so I began dancing.”

Since her victory, Sanjana has been busy entertaining a steady stream of visitors who trickle into her office at Kherli village despite the unbearable heat to meet their new MP, “madamji”. Her head covered with her pallu, Sanjana attends to each visitor personally — she appreciates the significance of her victory, which comes months after she lost the 2023 Assembly polls from Kathumar by just 409 votes.

“It was a tragedy,” the young mother of two says between visitors. “I refused the ticket for Lok Sabha initially but Congress leaders insisted. So, I took it as a challenge and put everything into winning.”

This victory is especially sweet given how she fought the polls. With funds quickly drying up, she had to fall back on supporters to chip in for the campaign as she took on the might of the BJP machinery.

“Our opponents had money power and we had the power of the people,” she says. “Many of our vehicles that were taken by the administration. Police tried to interfere in our campaign. Our vehicles were followed. BJP leaders called on local Congress leaders and