Shobhana George

Shobhana George, also known as Sobhana, is a 3 time Member of the Legislative Assembly of the state of Kerala, who represented the constituency of Chengannur in the 9th, 10th and 11th Legislative Assemblies.^[1]

Early life and Family

Shobana was born on 4 April 1960, the daughter of K.M. George and Thankamma George. She is married to Issac George and has 1 daughter.^[2]

Education

Shobana completed her SSLC from the Govt. Girls High School, Chengannur in 1976. She completed her Pre-Degree Course in 1979 and received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics, from the University of Kerala in 1982. Shobana went on to complete her Masters Degree in Arts in Sociology, in 1985, from the University of Mysore.^[3]

Career

Shobana was the first female president of the Akhila Kerala Balajan Sakhyam. She was also the first female General Secretary of the State Youth Congress Committee and has served as a Joint Secretary of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee. She has also served as a Senate Member of the Kerala University. Following her expulsion from the Indian National Congress, she joined the Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran) where she served as the General Secretary.^[4] She represented the Chengannur constituency in the Kerala Legislative Assembly in the 9th, 10th and 11th assemblies.

She resigned as MLA on 5 July 2005,^[4] after having resigned from the INC, and joining the DIC along with K Karunakaran.

In 2006, having joined the DIC(K)^[7] she stood for elections representing the Thiruvananthapuram West constituency, but lost.^[8] Later, she went back and re-joined the Congress.^[9] In 2011, she staked her claim for the Chengannur Assemebly constituency seat, however the Congress fielded its sitting MLA, P. C. Vishnunath, in spite of her claiming that she had the support of the Malankara church.^[10] She filed her nomination as an independent, but withdrew at the last moment, citing pressure from the party.^[11]

Controversies

In 1997, Shobana was manhandled, while attending a District Committee meeting by her colleagues. She raised a complaint against them which was largely ignored by the party.^[12]

In 2002, a non-bailable arrest warrant^[13] was issued for the arrest of Shobana George,^[14] in the case of a forged intelligence report which was faxed to the then Chief Minister A. K. Antony's office, stating that the Tourism and Fisheries Minister in his government, K. V. Thomas, was involved in a 366 crore Hawala transaction which took place in 1999-2000. Also arrested in the case was Surya TV's report Anil Nambiar,^[15] who flashed the letter on the channel, and Anil Sreerangam,^[16] Shobana's private secretary. The arrests were the result of a probe, ordered by the Chief Minister. She was also issued a show cause notice by the KPCC Disciplinary Action Committee.^[17] In 2013, she filed a complaint before the State Human Rights Commission, against value education trainer Rejith Kumar, who delivered a controversial speech which evoked widespread protests from women's groups.^[18]

Performing arts

In 2011, Shobana released a music album called 'Ente Onam' which was released by Chengannur Audios, by Mohandas Chengannur.^[19]

She also announced the release of a movie "Pratheekshayode" which she has scripted. The movie is about child labor and will have prominent actors Mukesh, Swetha Menon and others. The movie is to be directed by Snoba Alex, who has directed children's movies earlier.^[20]

References