Last week, two teachers with rural and underprivileged backgrounds scripted history. Ranjitsinh Disale, a zilla parishad primary school teacher from Paritewadi in Solapur district of Maharashtra, not only won the $1m (Rs 7 crore) Global Teacher Prize (India's first), but shared half the prize money (Rs 3.5 crore) with the other nine finalists to support their work. Nitesh Karale, a little known teacher from Wardha in Maharashtra, who became a social media sensation because of his unique way of 'online' teaching during the lockdown, was persuaded by his students and fans to contest the graduates' upper house constituency elections from Nagpur division. He did not win against the mighty contestants, but shone with a gain of 7,000 votes, a feat that many other famous people in the contest couldn't achieve.

Nitesh Karale contested the graduates' upper house constituency polls from Nagpur division. He didn’t win the seat, but won more votes than other famous people in the fray