Thursday, 28 March 2024 | PURNIMA BISHT | DEHRADUN
The distribution of tickets by the major political parties, BJP and Congress, for the Lok Sabha elections-2024 suggests that politics in Uttarakhand continues to remain an uneven arena for women. In a State where 40.1 lakh women voters are registered against 43.08 lakh men voters, the political parties have failed to provide adequate representation to women. In 70 constituencies in the State, there are only eight women MLAs including six from BJP and two from Congress. This shows that women MLAs form only 11.42 per cent of the State assembly against 88.5 per cent of men MLAs. Though BJP and Congress talk about women related issues and women empowerment, the decision making positions in both parties have negligible presence of women. The political parties that supported the Women’s Reservation Bill, 2023 in Parliament have also not fielded enough women to contest Lok Sabha elections in Uttarakhand. This bill was introduced in Lok Sabha on September 19, 2023. It seeks to reserve one-third or 33 per cent of the total number of seats in Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies for women for 15 years. The reservation will be effective after the completion of the delimitation process once a new census is published after the Lok Sabha elections 2024, as per the centre. This bill was introduced by the BJP who nominated only one woman candidate Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah (73) from the Tehri constituency in the State in the LS elections of 2024. Many, including opposition parties have claimed that Shah belonging to the erstwhile royal family of Tehri mostly remains distant from the public and only interacts with them during elections. On the other hand, Congress failed to nominate any woman candidate this time. Talking about poor women’s representation in elections in the State, BJP’s State Mahila Morcha president Asha Nautiyal told The Pioneer that BJP always support women leaders. “Six out of eight MLAs in the State belong to BJP. The party choose candidates for election considering various strategies other than just gender. However, I agree that we need better women’s representation in the State assembly elections and Lok Saba elections. This is why Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought the Women’s Reservation Bill, 2023 that will ensure to improve women’s representation in elections,” Nautiyal said. The president of the State’s women’s wing of Congress Jyoti Rautela said that it cannot be denied that women should be given adequate representation in elections. However, she added that Congress did not nominate any woman candidate for Lok Sabha elections as all the selected candidates were chosen as per public survey with the sole purpose of defeating BJP. “The condition of women has become worse under BJP rule. The crime against women including rape cases has increased rapidly under BJP leadership. Talking about women’s representation and issues only during elections will be worth nothing if women are even struggling to feel safe throughout the year,” she added.
