Iron Lady' Irom Sharmila becomes mother to twin girls

Bengaluru: The ‘Iron Lady of Manipur’ Irom Sharmila gave birth to twin girls on May 12, Mother’s Day in Bengaluru. The 47-year-old human rights activist ended her hunger strike in 2016 and got married in 2017.

Sharmila conducted a 16-year hunger strike, the world’s longest, demanding the withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act or AFSPA in Manipur. After 16 years of fasting and not yielding any result, she ended the fast on August 9, 2016. She then married her long-time partner Desmond Coutinho, a British national, in 2017, reported NDTV.

Post breaking the fast, she announced that she wanted to contest elections and become the chief minister of Manipur so that she could repeal the barbaric AFSPA. She then started a political party called People's Resurgence and Justice Alliance and contested in the state elections in 2017.

She contested from the constituency of Thoubal, against three-time Manipur chief minister Okar Ibobi Singh. But she managed to garner only 90 out of 27,271 votes polled. After her disastrous attempt at entering politics, she was asked once again in early 2019 of she would contest in national elections. She replied saying that politics was not her ‘cup of tea’.