Robin Hood with 'southern root' takes a shot at polls

Southern India’s port city of Viskhapatnam is good 1,600 km away from Gossaigaon sub-division of lower Assam’s conflict-ridden Kokrajhar bordering West Bengal and Bhutan. 

It was in 1994 that an unemployed youth from Visakhapatnam took a train ride to Gossaigaon searching for a job. In two decades, 40-year-old Ravi Shankar Khasireddy not only flourished in his business, but is also contesting the Assam Assembly polls to represent people of Gossaigaon.

Ravi Shankar is contesting on AIUDF ticket for the Gossaigaon seat. Ravi is now a permanent resident of Srirampur, a small town on the Assam-West Bengal border and runs several businesses, many say that he actually runs a notorious syndicate that controls the Srirampur check gate through which thousands of trucks carrying essential items for entire North-East region enter Assam.

 “I hail from Yellamnachili in Viskhapatnam district. My father used to work in a petrol pump. Right from childhood I have seen abject poverty. I was good at studies and I completed my graduation and was looking for job. One uncle from my village was a trucker. He brought me to Srirampur and I got a job in one of the transport office leased to private individuals for collection of duties from the good carrying trucks. Since lots of trucks with fish and other items came from Andra Pradesh, I was engaged as translator because the Telugu truck driver did not know Hindi,” Ravi told Deccan herald on the sidelines of a party rally  in Gossaigaon.

 It was in 2001 that he started his own transport firm and all truckers from southern India started taking his service. Later he started wholesale business of fish brought from Bhimavaram in Andhra Pradesh. Ravi is now one of the top notch business personalities of lower Assam.

 Gossaigaon the only unreserved constituency in Kokrajahr districts, the area saw clashes between the Muslims and the Bodo tribe in 2012 and massacre of Adivasi people by Bodo militants in 2014, but Ravi is acceptable to one and all and has a Robin Hood image. “Ravi might have hobnobbed with the high and mighty as a businessman but he is god-sent for poor people. Being at the fringes, this area is totally neglected by the government. Ravi helps people if they have to get admitted in hospitals, he gives financial help to poor students, builds small bridges and roads in remote villages and he does it for all – Bodos, Adivasis and Muslims” explains Abdur Rehman, a Madrassa teacher from Gossaigaon.

 “I am now one among them. This area needs an MLA who can fight for their rights and not eat away the money sent for developmental works.” Ravi adds.