Amidst leaders such as BJP President Amit Shah, controversial BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra and Congress President Rahul Gandhi raising the pitch for assembly elections, little attention has been paid to the role of civil servants. These civil servants play crucial role in conducting the free and fair elections that will decide the fate of thousands of candidates. Among those, who are making her presence felt in the ensuing elections is 2016 IAS topper Tina Dabi Khan, who’s now posted as the SDM of Bhilwara district of Rajasthan.
Tina Dabi Khan appears to have made herself comfortable in her new role as the DM of Rajasthan’s Bhilwara. Tina had recently held her first press briefing as the district SDM as she told media about the election preparations. Days later, she was at the helm of organising a ‘Pledge to Vote and candle march’ campaign to boost the awareness among voters.
Tina took to Instagram this week to post a series of photos of her campaign, launched under the Election Commission’s SVEEP programme. She wrote, “Here are some clicks of Pledge to Vote and Candle March that were conducted to motivate citizens to excercise their right to Vote by our SVEEP Team recently.” She then added that the colour theme of the campaign was purple to suit the colour of the ink used to apply on voters’ fingers to signify that they had cast their votes.
She wrote, “P.S., the theme colour for the event was purple.”
In one of the photos posted by Tina, a group of people are seen taking a pledge. In another photo, Tina is seen garlanding a member of local population, while she is seen addressing the crowd in a separate photo.
While her post evoked positive reactions from her fans with many once again informing her how she had inspired them, there were many, who inquired about her husband and 2nd ranked IAS topper of 2016, Athar Aamir Khan. One fan wrote, “Where has Sir (Athar) been posted Madam?” Others asked her the relevance of purple colour in elections.
Athar is currently on deputation with the Union Ministry of Tourism as an Assistant Secretary.
Rajasthan goes to polls on 7 December, when elections for 200 assembly seats will be held across the state. The results will be declared on 11 December along with Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram.
This Tina Dabi’s first election assignment after having topped the IAS exams in 2016. Her success in the civil services exams in 2016 has catapulted to to instant stardom. She got married to the 2nd ranked IAS officer from her batch, Athar Aamir Khan, earlier this year.
Tina also made her debut as a TEDx speaker this year when she spoke at Delhi’s Hansraj College. While speaking at the TEDx event, she had, for the first time, expressed her pain on being criticised for belonging to SC/ST community.
