Mahdu Yaskhi Goud, the only non-resident Indian (NRI) to contest the Lok Sabha elections in India, won on a Congress ticket from Nizamabad constituency in Andhra Pradesh. He won by an overwhelming 137,000 votes.

Speaking from Nizamabad, Yaskhi, 44, said in an exclusive phone interview to The Indian Express that he would keep his promises to alleviate the lot of the poor in his constituency, who had reposed their faith in him.

“I’ll take up constructive measures to avoid suicides of the district farmers; they should not suffer financially and should lead a decent life. Women and children should not work in the fields for a long time. All these are my top priorities,” said Yaskhi, who had shot into the limelight early last year when he made a visit to Machareddy Mandal – a small hamlet in Nizamabad District with a record number of suicides by impoverished farmers in India – to donate money to farmers and undertake responsibility for the education of the farmers’ children.

Yaskhi, a successful New Jersey-based businessman who runs several ventures including one of the top immigration firms in New York City – International Trade and Legal Consultants – and whose estimated annual business turnover is $3 million, lived in the United States for the last 15 years and built up a life of affluence. But after that visit to India, he decided to heed to his call for service to the people of his state and roots, and relocated to India with his wife and family earlier this year. He still runs his businesses in New York, but in an interview earlier this year had said that he would give up his green card if he won the Lok Sabha elections.

Yaskhi said that he would “add our own strategies to the measures in the Congress manifesto for the development of the district and solving problems of the people.” He also promised to complete unfinished projects and to give importance to rail connectivity supplying uninterrupted electricity .

“We'll encourage modern techniques in the farm sector, which will enhance the yield with a minimal use of water, and provide subsidies to the betterment of their financial crisis,” said Yaskhi. “We'll raise funds from the NRIs for the people’s welfare and provide medical facilities to the beedi [thin cigar] workers so they are not affected by whooping cough or asthma. Every NRI will adopt all children of each village and take up their education.” He pointed out that the state deficit has soared to 50 million rupees in the last 9 years, under Chandrababu Naidu’s rule.

Yaskhi is also angling for a ministry berth in the Cabinet. “It will be good for the country,” he reasons. “Despite the Bharatiya Janata Party’s trying hard to woo the NRI community in the United States and elsewhere, they did not give any ticket to NRIs. If I’m made a minister, I will be a link to the NRI community in the United States and foster better relations with India. I will be the voice of not only my constituents in Nizamabad but also for the NRI community.”

Asked if the pace of the hi tech growth in the state would falter with a new state government, Yaskhi said that there is nothing to worry about on that front.

Last year, Yaskhi started a Madhu Yaskhi Foundation to provide primary education and health care coverage for the underprivileged in Andhra Pradesh. He said he has pledged 25 percent of his personal annual income to this foundation. He has in the past funded a community youth center in Hayatnagar, donated money for the construction of the Gowda Community Hostel in Nalgonda, and funded the construction of the library at Gowda Hostel in Hyderabad.

Yaskhi may be a novice in politics, but he does have a taste for it. In his student days, he was the president at Delhi University Law College, and was earlier Vice President of the Students Union at Nizam College in Hyderabad.