As the MLA of Bhiwandi East, a suburb in Mumbai, seasoned politician Rais Shaikh has been working actively towards addressing and working towards solving the issues pertaining to the residents in his constituency. Rais Shaikh, who is a member of the Samajwadi Party, has been lauded for all the work he has done towards the upliftment of the people in his constituency. He had always had a firm belief in the fact that the youth of the country plays an important role in taking it forward. He had always closely interacted with the youth in his constituency and addressed their grievances.
Recently, Rais Shaikh, who is quite active on social media, organised a contest called ‘Ek Din Ka MLA’. Under this contest, his followers on social media were asked as to “What they would do if they got the opportunity to become an MLA for the day.”
The contest drew the attention of a large number of youngsters who talked about the things they would do or the changes they would like to bring if they got to assume power and authority for a day. Nine winners were selected and as promised, they got the chance to interact with Rais in a live session on his Instagram feed.
Talking about the same, Rais says, “It was great interacting with all the youngsters during the live session. Most people who participated chipped in with some great ideas but I liked the ideas and comments shared by these nine individuals to be the best. While interacting with them, I got to know about their aspirations and made a note of all the valuable suggestions they came up with to bring about some positive changes in Bhiwandi East and the society, in general. We often tend to undermine the opinion of young people and that is a very wrong thing to do. Youth signifies change and energy. They are the future of any society and country. We must listen to them and converse with them in a language they understand.”
The selection of the winners based on the kind of ideas they shared. The contest #EkDinKaMLA was organised and digitally managed by Sunil Gupta and Rima Mishra from the digital marketing agency Media Tribe.
“There was absolutely no bias in the contest. The winners were chosen based on merit. I am a member of the Samajwadi Party but a few of the participants, whom I interacted with, were affiliated to political parties like NCP and Shiv Sena. There was a lawyer, a student, a social activist and several other kinds of people. It was wonderful to speak to each of them and I hope to do another live session soon to delve further into the minds and aspirations of the youth”, Rais Shaikh states.