(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Parties reluctant to give tickets to fairer sex despite supporting women empowerment and 33 per cent reservation for them in parliamentary and state polls
While political parties and their leaders keep talking about women’s empowerment and 33 per cent reservation for women candidates in parliamentary and state elections when it comes to action all of them fail miserably. the ongoing general elections provided ample opportunity for all political parties to walk the talk and prove their credentials so far as their commitment to women’s causes is concerned.
The two major parties the congress and the bjp who should have taken the lead and nominated more women candidates have failed miserably in the 2014 general elections. the congress has nominated a little over 50 women candidates (about 12.5 per cent) of the more than 415 names it has announced so far. the bjp has nominated just about 35 women (8.5 per cent) so far from more than 400 candidates declared for the elections.
The aam aadmi party (aap) has fared slightly better and 15 per cent of its candidates (57) are women. according to an analysis of 1566 candidates by the national election watch just 123 (or eight per cent) are women.
Even in maharashtra political parties have shied away from fielding more women candidates. the congress has put up just one priya dutt the sitting mp from mumbai north-central. the bjp has given the tickets to just two women candidates poonam mahajan daughter of its late leader pramod (also mumbai north-central) and heena gavit from nandurbar.
The shiv sena has also announced just one woman candidate bhavana gawli from yavatmal-washim. but the nationalist congress party (ncp) has fared slightly better putting up three women candidates — supriya sule daughter of party chief sharad pawar from baramati; bharti pawar from dindori; and navneet rana from amravati.
Again the newbie party aap has done better than the other older parties. it has given tickets to eight women candidates in maharashtra. they include three high profile women — meera sanyal (mumbai south) medha patkar (mumbai north-east) and anjali damania. other women candidates from the party in maharashtra are deepali sayed (ahmednagar) pratibha shinde (raver) savita shinde (madha) salma kulkarni (parbani) and sameena khan (sangli).
Mumbai of course has a much better track record so far as women candidates are concerned both within maharashtra and nationwide. even among the metros mumbai has a much higher percentage of women candidates at almost 20 per cent.
Mumbai has five women candidates — medha patkar and meera sanyal (aap) priya dutt the sitting congress mp poonam mahajan (bjp) and rakhi sawant (independent). the shiv sena and the maharashtra navniman sena (mns) the two rival senas who consider mumbai has their stronghold have failed to put up women candidates in the metropolis.
In neighbouring thane — which has four lok sabha seats — none of the major parties have nominated women candidates. all the major parties however promise that they would put up many more women in the assembly elections that are scheduled for october. — nithin?khalejtimes.com
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