Date:26/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/26/stories/2008112659951000.htm

National

Sivakami joins BSP

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: Senior IAS officer P. Sivakami, who quit government service to pursue politics, joined the Bahujan Samaj Party on Tuesday. She has been appointed senior general secretary in Tamil Nadu.

“For long, I was planning to quit the government service. I have worked closely with the Dalit land movement, and for women empowerment. I have entered politics to pursue these issues more seriously,” she told The Hindu.

She had applied for voluntary retirement in the beginning of November and was relieved from service on November 21.

Asked about the scope for the BSP in Tamil Nadu when the political scenario had already been occupied by active Dalit parties such as the VCK and the Puthiya Tamizhagam, she said the party would adopt the UP model by bringing together the minorities, the socially and economically backward sections and the Brahmins. Author of four novels and hundred short stories, she has published the English version of her Tamil novel, Pazhaiana Kazhithalum with the title “The grip of change.”