Sofia Firdous, the Congress legislator from Barabati-Cuttack district, has etched her name in history. With her election to the Odisha Assembly, she becomes the state's first-ever Muslim woman MLA. Firdous secured her victory by a margin of 8,001 votes, triumphing over her rival candidate, Purna Chandra Mahapatra of the BJP.
Here are 5 facts about Odisha's first-ever woman Muslim MLA:
1. The 32-year-old Sofia Firdous hails from a political family and is the daughter of prominent Congressman Mohammed Moquim. In the 2024 Odisha Assembly elections, the party fielded Firdous instead of Moquim, and she won.
2. Firdous graduated from Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology with a degree in civil engineering. In 2022, she also finished the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore's (IIMB) Executive General Management Program.
3. The Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI) elected Firdous as its president in 2023 for the chapter in Bhubaneswar. She serves as the CREDAI women's branch East Zone Coordinator.