Manipuri human rights activist Irom Sharmila, also known as the iron lady, is set to end her 16-year hunger strike on August 9 and contest elections. 

“I will break my fast as the government has failed to give any positive response,” Sharrmila told reporters.   

Manipur is scheduled to hold assembly elections in early 2017.

In the past, she has refused offers from the AAP to contest the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Speaking at the Imphal court, where she is required to present herself every 15 days, Sharmila said that she even intends to get married.

She had initiated the hunger strike in November, 2000, at the age of 27, after 10 persons were shot dead by personnel of the Assam Rifles in Imphal.

In the last 16 years, she has been force fed through a nasal tube and courted arrest on multiple occasions, on the charge of attempting to commit suicide.

Recently in March, she was acquitted in a case of attempted suicide from 2006 at the national capital.