Summary of this article
While other candidates declare crores in assets, Ashna Thambi’s net worth is just Rs 84 (Rs 44 in a bank account and Rs 40 in cash), with her party crowdfunding her security deposit.
She views parliamentary politics not as an end goal but as a loudspeaker to spread working-class ideology and organize people’s movements, since the media and voters pay attention during elections.
Her first three commitments are to ensure free medicine truly means free at government medical colleges, build storage facilities for farmers to prevent distress sales, and address traffic and infrastructure.
In an election season defined by high-decibel roadshows, crorepati candidates, and the clinking of cash, a 26-year-old woman from Kulayettikara village has submitted an affidavit that reads like a radical poem.
While others list luxury cars, stocks, and real estate, Ashna Thambi’s rows are filled with just two words: Not applicable. Her declared net worth is Rs 84 - Rs 44 in a bank account and Rs 40 in cash given by her mother for the bus ride to file her nomination. Her party, the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist), had to crowdfund her security deposit.
Thambi is running her campaigns in the Ettumanoor assembly constituency. In an interview with Outlook, Tahmbi discussed her journey, her vision, and why she believes social work has nothing to do with money. Edited excerpts:
Ashna, your lifestyle is a stark contrast to the glitz of modern politics. You grew up in Kulayettikara with parents who are daily wage workers and SUCI members. How did that upbringing shape your understanding of the world?
My father, Thambi CK, is a daily wage worker and a district committee member. My mother, Omana PP, is also a daily wage worker and a local committee member. I grew up watching them struggle not just for our family’s bread, but for the ideology of the working class.
When I moved to Kochi for my undergraduate degree, I didn’t stay in a hostel. I stayed at the party’s office. Later, in Kottayam for my journalism diploma, I lived at the party’s district office. That lifestyle teaches you that you don’t need a personal room to have a big dream. You learn that food is for energy, not for status, and that clothes are for protection, not for show.
You were part of All India Development Student Organization (AIDSO) in college. Was there a specific moment during your college days when politics stopped being an abstract idea and became a calling?
Yes. In college, I saw a lot of students talking about development as if it only meant new buildings or flyovers. But I saw my friends dropping out because they couldn’t afford textbooks. I saw the gap between the rich and the poor right there in the classroom.
I have been a party member for ten years now, but it was during my college days as a state secretary member of AIDSO that I fully grasped the ideological depth of our movement. I realised that parliamentary politics is not the goal, it is just a medium. The real goal is to organise the people. College taught me that if you want to change society, you cannot do it from an air-conditioned room. You have to live with the people.
If you don’t believe in parliamentary politics as the final goal, why put yourself through the gruelling process of fighting an election?
That is a very important question. We are fighting because elections give us a platform and a loudspeaker. Through the election, we can spread our ideologies and our politics to the people more easily. It is a platform.
When you file a nomination, the media listens. The people debate. We don’t have money for glitzy campaigns, but we have something better: the truth. We go to the doorsteps, we hold corner meetings, and we talk about people’s movements. The election is just a tool to strengthen our working-class struggle.
Your funds for campaigns are not much compared to other politicians. What is your strategy? How do you campaign against money-loaded candidates?
We don't have a war chest; we have a people's chest. The party raised Rs 10,000 for my deposit through donations from those who believe in us. Our strategy is simple: Personal talk and corner meetings.
Money is not important to spread ideology. You can spread it through your work. We propagate the idea of the 'People's Movement'. Whenever an issue emerges, like the farmers’ issue or the Asha Workers' Movement, we tell the people: Unite. Forget your caste, your religion, your party flag. Unite as working-class people.
The current LDF government under Pinarayi Vijayan boasts of infrastructure miracles, bridges, buildings, and highways. What is your opinion?
They built bridges, yes. They built buildings. But tell me: Has that changed the life of the farmer waiting for his rice to be bought because he has no cash or storage facility? Has that fixed the medical college where the free medicine is just a prescription you have to buy from an outside shop?
They say they uphold communism, but they do not practice it. The staff-to-patient ratio in our hospitals is a disaster. The unemployment crisis is a disaster. The people are suffering. They are not democratic. They serve corporate agendas, not the working class. The people of Kerala are realising this. They see the difference between talking about socialism and living it.
Let’s assume you win. You take the oath. What is the first thing you will do?
I have visited several of houses in Ettumanoor. My first major responsibilities will be threefold:
We will fight to ensure that government medical college prescriptions don’t require outside purchases. Free medicine must mean free.
We will build storage houses so farmers don't have to sell their rice at a loss because they have nowhere to keep it.
We will look at solving traffic and infrastructure problems.
But beyond these three, I will continue what I am doing now: organizing the people’s movement. The Asha Workers' Movement, where our party played a major role in organising, that is the model. A movement without a party flag, where people uplift themselves through their own struggle. If I win, I will use the MLA fund not as a charity, but as a seed for revolution.
People are tired of the same rich faces. They want to see what a real worker looks like in the assembly. They want to see if the system can be broken from the inside.
