‘India doesn’t tolerate differences, it celebrates’: Sasikanth Senthil, Congress MP
Sasikanth Senthil has been a key figure in the Congress’ resurgent performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, where they won 99 seats—up from 52 in 2019. Though he prefers to keep a low profile, Senthil (45) won his Lok Sabha election from Tiruvallur, a reserved (Scheduled Caste) constituency in Tamil Nadu, by a margin of over five and a half lakh votes, the highest in the State. Senthil has also been actively involved with the Congress “war room” for the general election, which he also helped set up in Karnataka ahead of the 2023 Assembly election. Senthil, who comes from a Dalit family, studied engineering at NIT Trichy before cracking the civil services exam to become an IAS officer. But he gave it up in 2019 to take up political activism, subsequently joining the Congress. During his swearing-in ceremony as MP, he stood out for highlighting injustice towards minorities, Dalits, and Adivasis, in line with his party’s social justice plank. In this exclusive interview with senior journalist Saba Naqvi, Sasikanth Senthil speaks about his journey to Parliament, his stint with the civil services and why he quit, the state of Dalit politics in India, and more.
Sasikanth Senthil has been a key figure in the Congress’ resurgent performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, where they won 99 seats—up from 52 in 2019. Though he prefers to keep a low profile, Senthil (45) won his Lok Sabha election from Tiruvallur, a reserved (Scheduled Caste) constituency in Tamil Nadu, by a margin of over five and a half lakh votes, the highest in the State. Senthil has also been actively involved with the Congress “war room” for the general election, which he also helped set up in Karnataka ahead of the 2023 Assembly election. Senthil, who comes from a Dalit family, studied engineering at NIT Trichy before cracking the civil services exam to become an IAS officer. But he gave it up in 2019 to take up political activism, subsequently joining the Congress. During his swearing-in ceremony as MP, he stood out for highlighting injustice towards minorities, Dalits, and Adivasis, in line with his party’s social justice plank. In this exclusive interview with senior journalist Saba Naqvi, Sasikanth Senthil speaks about his journey to Parliament, his stint with the civil services and why he quit, the state of Dalit politics in India, and more.
