The Indian Parliament in September 2023, passed the historic and long-awaited women’s reservation bill or the Nari Shakti Vandan Abhiniyam, making way for the reservation of one-third of legislative seats for women. While its implementation rests on two crucial exercises: census and delimitation, a large number of major political parties, barring AIMIM, backed the idea of giving more representation to women. But when it comes to parties fielding candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, the number of women candidates still remain marginal.
Women have been the major focus of political parties throughout the state assembly elections last year and general elections this year. Making promises of free public transport, jobs, cylinders etc., political parties have been banking on welfare programmes aimed towards women, who are the ‘world’s poor’, according to the United Nations. Over 85-lakh first time women voters will participate in this year’s election.
Let’s take a look as to how many women candidates parties like BJP, Congress and TMC have fielded so far for contesting Lok Sabha elections.
Lauding for women empowerment, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other frontline leaders seems to have looked the other way when it came to choosing women candidates for the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The BJP’s list of women candidates shows that as many as 40 women candidates fielded, are related to families with political connections.
Altogether, the BJP has announced candidates for 417 parliamentary seats of which 68 (a little over 16 percent) are women. The party had fielded 45 women candidates in 2009, 38 in 2014, and 55 in 2019.
Smriti Irani , Preneet Kaur (wife of Punjab ex-CM Amarinder Singh), Bansuri Swaraj (daughter of Sushma Swaraj), Sita Soren (daughter-in-law of JMM patriarch Shibu Soren), Geeta Koda (wife of former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda), Jyoti Mirdha (granddaughter of former MP Nathuram Mirdha), Gayathri Siddeshwara (wife of former union minister G.M. Siddeshwara), Navneet Rana (wife of three-time MLA Ravi Rana), Malavika Devi (wife of former Kalahandi MP Arka Keshari Deo), Kriti Singh Debbarma (sister of Tipra Motha Party founder Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma) . From Odisha BJP has nominated former IAS officer Aparajita Sarangi from Bhubaneshwar. Kanagan Ranaut ( BJP).
Supriya Sule NCP ( SP) daughter of Sharad Pawar from Baramati . Ajit Pawar has fielded his wife Sunetra Pawar who will take on Supriya Sule in much talked about Baramati- face-off.
TMC has given Hoogly ticket to popular TV show host of Didi Number 1 Rachana Banerjee. From Odisha BJP has nominated former IAS officer Aparajita Sarangi from Bhubaneshwar. Kanimozhi ( DMK) , Agatha Sangma ( NPP) from Meghalaya . Samajwadi Party has given ticket to Dimple Yadav.
On the other hand, despite Jammu and Kashmir’s rich tapestry of talented women leaders, the major political parties, including the National Conference (NC), BJP, and Congress, have fielded no female candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections. Amidst the predominantly male-dominated candidates from various parties, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti is the sole female candidate contesting from Anantnag Lok Sabha seat.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) too, announced the party’s candidate list for the 42 Parliamentary Constituencies in West Bengal dropping at least eight sitting MPs and bringing in several new faces such as former cricketers Yusuf Pathan and Kriti Azad. The party renominated 16 sitting MPs and fielded 12 women. Mahua Moitra , Sujata Mondal Khan, June Malia to name a few.
Unfortunately, the Congress party which is considered to be the main opposition party has not fielded many women candidates. Also, AAP hasn’t fielded any women candidate from their Delhi seat, which is contradicting their stand on the women reservation bill.
Despite passing of women reservation bill, not much has changed on the ground, for the women candidates are probably not yet considered a safe bet for winning the seat. The mindset has to be changed, not only on paper, but on the ground as well.
