All you need to know about the first woman MLA of Nagaland

Dimapur, March 2: Hekani Jakhalu, a candidate from the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) today emerged victorious after winning the Dimapur-III constituency. Interestingly, the state of Nagaland has never elected a woman MLA and Hekani has scripted history this time. She will now be the first woman MLA in the Nagaland Legislative Assembly.

She defeated Lok Janshakti Partysitting MLA Azheto Zhimomi by 1,536 votes.

Born in the year 1976, Hekani Jakhalu is an Indian lawyer and social entrepreneur from Nagaland. Hailing from Dimapur, she did her schooling at Bishop Cotton Girls’ School in Bengaluru and earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi.

She studied for a Bachelor of Laws degree at the University of Delhi and took a Master of Laws at the University of San Francisco. After returning she began a career as a lawyer.

Further, the 47-year-old Jakhalu also set up the non-governmental organization YouthNet Nagaland to help the youth of Nagaland pursue business opportunities and in the year 2018, she was recognised with the Nari Shakti Puraskar award.

YouthNet aims to create more opportunities for the youth of Nagaland. As of 2018, YouthNet had 30 employees and claims to have helped 23,500 people. It aims to help entrepreneurs pursue their ideas and set up a “Made in Nagaland” centre in Kohima where artisans sell their goods.

(Source: Wiki)