Topping the university was never on her mind. Paying the college fee every year was a big enough ask already.

But it has not stopped Payal Kumari, daughter of a migrant worker from Bihar, from scripting what has been hailed as a story of “inclusive India” in a year saturated with images of abandoned migrants’ miseries.

She has stood first in her BA Archaeology course from the Mahatma Gandhi University in Kerala, surprising herself and thrilling the southern state’s political who’s who.

The student of Marthoma Women’s College in Perumbavoor, near Kochi, scored 85 per cent.

Congratulatory messages have been pouring in, with chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan calling her on Saturday to laud her achievement.

Senior Congress leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor said Payal’s success was “another story of #InclusiveIndia from Kerala!”

Payal now wants to postgraduate from JNU and join the civil services.

Payal, who speaks fluent English and Malayalam, told reporters that paying the yearly college fee of Rs 3,000 had been a huge challenge for her family, which had migrated to Kerala 19 years ago when she was four.

“But there were good Samaritans who lent a helping hand,” she said.

Her history lecturer, Priya Kurian, paid her first-year fees after learning about the plight of the family, which lives in a rented home at Edappally in Kochi. The following two years, too, teachers helped her.

They were confident she would do well in her final exams, Payal said. “I knew I had done well but did not expect a rank,” she told PTI.

Payal thanked her father Pramod Kumar and mother Bindu Devi for always encouraging her to study and never pressuring her to marry.

“My parents are very happy with my result. They told me to continue studying,” she said.

Pramod, who is from Gosaiymati village in Bihar’s Sheikhupura district, had arrived in Kerala at the turn of the millennium seeking a better life for his family.

Payal’s elder brother Akash Kumar is employed and sister Pallavi Kumari is doing her BSc in physics.

“I’m confident speaking Hindi, English and Malayalam,” Payal said. But at home, the family speaks only Hindi as the parents do not know much Malayalam, she said.

“Her achievement is a matter of pride and great joy for us,” Vijayan said.

“This shows that the steps taken by the state for the welfare of the guest workers never went in vain. I wish her all success in her future endeavours.”

Mizoram governor P.S. Sreedharan Pillai, who is from Kerala, and state agriculture minister V.S. Sunil Kumar too sent messages of congratulation, Payal said.

Finance minister T.M. Thomas Isaac tweeted: “Payal Kumari, daughter of Pramod, a migrant worker from Bihar, graduates from MG University Kerala with first rank BA Archaeology and History (85% marks). She hails from Gosaimaty village in Shaikpura district. She wants to join JNU. Feel so proud of you Payal. Congratulations.”