The election challenge will pale in front of the struggle that young Sobha Subin has faced growing up.
Sobha, the Congress candidate making a strong pitch in the Left bastion of Kaipamangalam in Thrissur district, has long attracted attention for the unusual name for a man. The 35-year-old Kerala Youth Congress general secretary was named after his mother who was killed by his father.
Sobha was just eight months old when his mother was killed and his father landed in jail for the crime. With no one to take care of him, Sobha’s maternal aunt Omana and maternal uncle Subramanian, a fisherman, took up guardianship. While Omana didn’t marry, Subramanian married when Sobha was 13 years old.