It wasn't meant to be easy. Elections never are. And she is pitched against Uttar Pradesh's political heavy-weights who have money, muscle and party cadre on their side. But 25-year-old Vandana Sharma knew this the day she quietly stepped out of her house with 10,000 rupees on a chilly January morning to file her nomination papers as an Independent candidate from the Fatehpur Sikri assembly constituency. The money - a third of her 32,000 rupees that she declared as her assets in the election affidavit - was for the security deposit.
