Moquim had nurtured his constituency well, and was popular. When he returned to Cuttack with daughter Sophia, there was a general gloom among his supporters. Elections were just a month away. There was not much he could do. His conviction disqualified him from contesting for the next six years.
At this juncture, Moquim’s supporters and party workers approached Sofia and urged her to contest. They knew her from the time she had campaigned for her father and been with him sometimes during public engagements.
“They kept telling me that I should take it as a challenge. I was initially not sure if I would be able to handle the rough and tumble of elections. But seeing their enthusiasm, I went to my father and told him that I will contest,” Sofia told ThePrint.
Her father, she says, approved of her decision like he had done back in 2013 when she told him about her wish to join his real estate business.
Moquim is the founder and managing director of the Metro Group, a prominent real estate player in Odisha. Sofia joined Metro as a director soon after finishing her civil engineering degree from Bhubaneshwar’s Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT).
“My gender was never a stumbling block in my not so usual career choices. My family has always given me the freedom to pursue what I want,” she says.
Sophia went on to win the Barabati-Cuttack seat with a margin of 8,001 votes defeating BJP’s P.C. Mahapatra, and, in the process, became the first Muslim woman MLA in the Odisha assembly.
There has been no looking back since then. The 33-year-old from a party that has been relegated to a corner, has in 10 months, made heads turn with her pointed interventions in the assembly, asking questions, raising issues of public interest and participating in discussions.
In the just concluded budget session, Sofia along with other party MLAs were at the forefront of protests against the ruling government over the growing cases of atrocities against women. The protests led to the Speaker suspending all 14 Congress MLAs from the assembly. The Congress, political observers said, overshadowed the presence of the principal opposition party, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) inside the House.
In fact, after the first assembly session concluded last year, Sophia was named the only first-time MLA, who raised the highest number of questions.
She is among the more visible and vocal faces of the moribund Congress in and outside the Assembly today in Odisha. Political veterans in opposition parties have taken note of her assembly debut and talk about her potential. She is giving competition to her party seniors, with journalists queuing up to get her views on important issues.
However, there are others in the opposition camp who allege that Sofia has had it too easy. “No doubt that she is smart and aggressive. But she got everything on a platter. Her real estate foray started with her father’s business. Same with her political debut from a seat, where her father’s command rules,” a former BJD leader, who did not want to be named, said.
The first-time MLA admits that her father was a big factor behind her win. “Without his support, I would not have won. He is behind me like a rock. But he never spoon-fed me. Not in politics, nor in real estate business.”
Moquim recalls that back in 2013, when his daughter joined the real estate business, she was the first woman in the family and in the state to do so. “She has a very different character, bold and fearless. As a child when anybody asked her what she would become when she grows up, her answer always was ‘Mai Metro builder banoongi (I will become a metro builder)’,” he tells ThePrint, sitting in his Bhubaneswar office.
Swadesh Routray, president, Confederation of Real Estate Developers Associations of India (CREDAI), Odisha chapter says that Sofia is better than many of the men in the business. “She used to go to project sites, stood under the sun for hours to oversee construction. She could have easily taken up an office job but she chose to be in the field,” he says.
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‘Charges flew thick & fast’
But, transitioning from real estate to politics was not easy. It was not just charges of nepotism. “From the word go, I could feel the pressure. During my campaigning, people used to say in front of me that they are not voting for me but for Moquim sahab (my father) and once I win, my father will be the one who will lead, I am just a face,” Sofia recalls.
That was the general perception about her. “But I have surprised them. I took my job as an elected MLA very seriously. My thing was if people have elected me, blessed me, I cannot just run away from my responsibility. Mera tha ki mujhe 100 percent dena hai. (My thing was that I have to give my 100 percent),” she says.
And she did work hard. Before the first assembly session was to begin, her party seniors told her to prepare questions well. Sofia says she bought the book of rules and procedures to be followed in the legislative assembly. “I read the entire book, page by page. When the first session ended, I did not feel like I was a first-timer,” she says.
First-time MLA who raised maximum questions
After the session was over, the assembly secretariat came out with the rankings of how legislators performed. According to the rankings, Sofia was the only MLA, who raised the highest number of questions as a first-timer. There are 80 debutant MLAs in the Odisha assembly.
She admits she gained a lot of visibility after her assembly performance. “I prepared my own questions. I understand policy, regulations well, so I could easily pick up the gaps.”
Sofia says there are many who still think that her father is handholding her at every step. “But my father is a person, who likes to empower everybody. In business also, my father gave me a free hand.”
“This helped develop my skill. I also got freedom to explore on my own and think… maybe my father also wanted to see my interest in politics.”
Sofia says she is enjoying politics now though it’s very different from the corporate lifestyle she had in real estate.
Her confidence grew with each subsequent assembly session. So much so that Sofia says now people come to her from adjoining constituencies and request her to raise their issues. “Surprisingly people have got to know that I ask a lot of questions. Bahut door se bhi log aate hain mere pas umeed lekar (People come from afar with a lot of expectations).”
Her debut assembly performance did not go unnoticed by the political veterans from the opposition parties in the Odisha assembly. Prasanna Acharya, deputy leader of BJD legislature party, says Sofia is one of the brightest young MLAs in the assembly. “She is serious in her approach and comes to the house fully prepared,” he says.
The Congress MLA is quick to acknowledge that within the Congress also, the CLP leaders support the young MLAs. “That’s how we got the chance to perform in the assembly, otherwise if seniors won’t allow, how will you speak.”
Sofia says her family, especially her mother-in-law, are surprised at how she has evolved. “She keeps asking me how do I speak so well on such a host of issues so confidently and whether I prepare what I say,” she says with a chuckle.
She says she is lucky to have a very supportive family. “We are a very progressive Muslim family. Nobody in my or my in-laws’ family ever told me to stay inside the house. My mother-in-law was a school teacher herself.”
Sofia has been married for 10 years now. Her husband, Sheikh Mairajul Haque, has his own real estate business.
Born in Cuttack, Sofia and her younger sister, a doctor, grew up in a joint family. “My father lost his two elder brothers at a young age. He raised their families,” she says.
Her initial schooling was from Cuttack’s St. Joseph Girls High school followed by Ravenshaw Junior College. “Though we came from a business daily, my parents raised us in a very humble way. Our pocket money was limited. There were big cars at home, but we kids used to go to school in an autorickshaw.”
A couple of years after joining her father’s real estate business, she did an executive management programme from IIM Bangalore.
Sofia says that when she joined her father’s business and decided to handle operations, there was no role model for her. “I was the first woman developer in the state. I don’t know why my father chose me for the business, alongside him.”
Initially, she says she faced a lot of leg-pulling from her contemporaries and seniors in the realty sector. “I was very conscious and worked extra hard to prove myself. I prepared well.. read up on the real estate regulations… RERA (Real Estate Regulatory Authority) had just come in. I became a pro in regulations, my visibility grew.”
Routray, CREDAI Odisha president, says Sofia has a strong determination to succeed.
“When she joined her father’s business, we wondered what such a young girl would do. But we have been proven wrong. She is smart and very disciplined. She picked up the rope quickly, read a lot. She is an expert in housing policies and real estate regulations.”
Sofia has also become the first woman president of CREDAI’s Bhubaneswar chapter. “She is now emerging as a vocal MLAs also raising issues of public good,” he says.
In the ten months that she has been an MLA, Sofiya says her father gave the freedom to work as per her style, “It was not like I copied him, tried to emulate him. I can speak my mind out.”
Growing up, Sofia says she has been exposed to public life. One of her uncles was a Pradesh Congress Committee secretary. Her father became an MLA in 2019. “I have seen how my father handles the public, how well behaved he is with every person coming to our home. That culture, that upbringing I learnt at home,” she says.
She says she is aware that she has become an MLA at a time when Congress’ position has weakened considerably. From once ruling the state to winning just 14 out of the total 147 seats, the party’s numbers have continued to decline.
But she says the party’s mindset is now seeing a shift. “The inertia is gone under the leadership of the new PCC president Bhakta Charan Das. He has been able to enthuse the party cadre.Everybody is now working to revive the party. The way we cornered the BJP in the just concluded Assembly session over issues like growing atrocities against women is an example.”
Though an optimist, Sofia says she has not made any long-term plans yet. “Politics is very uncertain. We are currently focussing on short-term goals. All of us are working hard to ensure the party comes to power in 2029.”
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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