Tiliya Devi, a Nobel Prize Nominee from Bihar, is in the Election fray as an AAP Candidate from Jhanjharpur Constituency. Tiliya was one of the nominees for Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.
Tiliya Devi is an AAP Candidate from Bihar
She is contesting opposite to, sitting MP Mangnilal Mandal (now from RJD), former Union Minister Devendra Prasad Yadav (JDU) and Birendra Kumar Choudhary (BJP). Jhanjharpur goes into election on April 30.
She is undeterred however. “I am fighting the polls against the scourge of corruption,” she said while talking to Mail Today.
“She has been getting tremendous support from the people, especially those from the underprivileged sections of society,” said Ram Narain, an AAP supporter.
According to Peace for Women, Tiliya Devi was born in 1963 in Madhubani, Bihar,  in a socially as well as economically backward community of Bihar. Going to school and getting an education was out of the question, and she started to work with her parents at a local landowner’s farm from the time she was a toddler.  Tiliya was married off at 14 and today, she is the mother of two daughters and three sons.
Tiliya later joined Lok  Shakti Sangathan (LSS), where she  learnt to read and write. She was also given training as a “social animatorâ€, a training designed by the organization for the express purpose of cadre-building.
Tiliya was a born leader, something no one was aware of, least of all she herself. And when the LSS wanted to add more numbers to its campaigns, Tiliya volunteered to rally women around from the villages in the vicinity. In every village she went to, she helped set up a Gramkosh, a common fund where every villager deposits money for an hour of need, or crisis. Her leadership and organizational capabilities were outstanding, and she soon established herself.
Tiliya gained limelight when she campaigned to reclaim back 156–acre plot of land in her village illegally occupied by landlords.
In 2001, Tiliya contested the Panchayat elections and was appointed a member to the Panchayat Samity. Her victory came almost undisputed. She has been working as a Panchayat Samiti member ever since.