New Delhi: More than six weeks have passed since Parliament passed the Constitution (One Hundred Twenty-Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023 — also known as the women’s reservation bill — for 33 percent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. The bill has since received the President’s nod, making it into a law.
The quota is to be implemented following the next census, and the delimitation of constituencies based on that delimitation.
Across central Delhi, hoardings have come up, featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi and women members of Parliament (MPs), claiming “Desh ne kiya nari shakti ko vandan (the country has given a salutation to the power of women)”.
However, the sentiment does not appear to be reflected in the distribution of poll tickets by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Of the 613 candidates fielded by the BJP for the upcoming assembly elections in five states, till Friday, only 81 (or 13.2 percent) are women. The party is yet to declare its candidates for 66 seats in Mizoram, Telangana and Rajasthan.
In Madhya Pradesh, for instance, 28 (or 12 percent) of the BJP’s 230 candidates are women. For Rajasthan, this number is 11.4 percent — 21 women among a total of 184 candidates.
Similarly, in Chhattisgarh, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a public meeting on 1 October that he was hoping to get the “blessings of women” voters in light of his government throwing its weight behind the women’s quota, only 15 (or 16.6 percent) of the 90 candidates whose names were declared by the BJP, are women.
In Telangana, where Modi declared that his government “established the emotion of worshipping ‘Shakti’ (women)”, 13 of the BJP’s 88 candidates (14.7 percent) are women. This number is not too different in Mizoram, where only four (or 19 percent) of the BJP’s 21 candidates are women.
While political analysts told ThePrint that the percentage of women candidates is low across parties, BJP leaders from poll-bound states underlined that the representation of women takes a backseat on account of winnability being the primary criterion for ticket distribution.
“Winning is the most important thing in electoral politics. All political parties embrace saam, daam, dand, bhed (persuasion, purchase, punishment and secrets) to win elections,” said Anupama Saxena, head of the department of political science at Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur.
Saxena, also the state coordinator of Lokniti-CSDS, added that the blame lies with the society, which does not accept women as leaders.
“We have to admit that ours is a patriarchal society. Women as political leaders are not very acceptable. In fact, women across fields — administration, business, films — have less acceptance as a leader. Similar is the situation in politics,” she told ThePrint.
Another senior political analyst who spoke to ThePrint on condition of anonymity said she believed there was no “real interest in giving women either representation or tickets right now”.
“Because the easiest thing to do would have been for all political parties to give women tickets. But that’s not happening. I think not just the BJP but no political party, across the board, is interested (in women’s representation) because there is cut-throat competition between them and I think that’s the main reason,” said the retired professor of political science, who did not wish to be named.
The limited presence of women is also visible in the list of candidates declared by the Congress, which too has been claiming credit for pioneering the cause of reservation for women in Parliament and state legislatures. Of the 616 candidates declared by the party so far, only 81 (13.15 percent) are women. In the two states — among the five poll-bound ones — where the Congress is in power, however, this number is relatively higher.
ThePrint reached BJP national spokesperson Anil Baluni over phone for comment on the low representation of women among candidates for the upcoming assembly elections, but had not received a response by the time of publication. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
The low percentage of women candidates is despite an improvement in the ratio of women voters in all five poll-bound states.
According to Saxena, however, at present women electors do not make their choice of whom to vote for based on women’s issues or the gender of the candidate. “Factors like caste, religion and ideology, remain ahead.”
The other analyst added, “It’s not just about women’s representation or tickets. I don’t think women figure much in the political radar as far as parties are concerned. Yes, before elections they (political parties) make promises, trying to get women to vote for them.”
ThePrint looks at the representation of women candidates in the five states where assembly elections are scheduled to be held this year.
Also read: What is delimitation & why enactment of women’s reservation bill depends on it
Madhya Pradesh
The fight for the women’s vote is pronounced in Madhya Pradesh, where the incumbent BJP has rolled out its flagship ‘Ladli Behna Yojana’ for women, besides offering a 35 percent quota for women in government jobs.
Of the 28 seats where the party has fielded women candidates this time around, it had won 15 in the previous assembly elections in 2018.
On the occasion of his birthday in March this year, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had announced the ‘Ladli Behna Yojana’ — Rs 1,000 per month as financial assistance for women aged 23-60 who are eligible for help under the scheme. This amount was later hiked to Rs 1,250 in August. Beneficiaries include women who are not taxpayers, don’t have permanent employment or those with a family income of no more than Rs 2.5 lakh per annum.
In July, Chouhan also launched a ‘Ladli Behna Sena’ to help “achieve the dream of empowering women in the state” by spreading awareness about government schemes related to women.
The gender ratio among electors has improved in all five poll-bound states, including in Madhya Pradesh.
According to the Election Commission, from 917 women for every 1,000 men in MP in 2018, it is now 945 women for every 1,000 men — indicating an increase in the number of women voters.
But while the BJP has announced schemes intended specifically for women voters, the party has fallen short of giving enough tickets to women, with only 12.3 percent of its candidates declared so far being women.
“We paved the way for 33 percent reservation for women within the organisation just for this. The number of women candidates, which was 1-2 percent at one time, is now 13-15 percent and should reach 33 percent,” says Madhya Pradesh BJP spokesperson Hitesh Bajpai.
Bajpai maintains that while the party is currently handing out tickets on the basis of winnability, the aim is to give women “revered” organisation roles.
On the party’s 2008 resolution to reserve 33 percent of organisational posts for women, he added: “That shows our commitment towards women empowerment. Even in ticket distribution, we have given more tickets to women than the Congress. Also, we don’t give tickets to women just because they are someone’s family members.”
Bajpai agreed that the women’s vote will be a “prime factor” in Madhya Pradesh where voting is to be held on 17 November.
Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh & Rajasthan
Unlike the 2018 assembly polls, women electors now outnumber male voters in Chhattisgarh. According to the Election Commission, the state has 1.01 crore male and 1.02 crore women voters, as opposed to 93.19 lakh male and 92.68 lakh women voters in 2018.
In Rajasthan, though the male-female electorate ratio has improved, the number of male voters stands at 2.73 crore as against 2.52 crore women voters. The number was 2.49 crore male and 2.28 crore women voters in 2018.
While the BJP has been highlighting alleged crime against women as one of its prominent poll planks in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, its selection of candidates does not reflect an emphasis on representation of women in the legislature.
The party has, however, kept its women leaders at the forefront, at least in Rajasthan. These include former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, Rajsamand MP Diya Kumari and former Congress MP Jyoti Mirdha, who have featured prominently in its election campaign.
ThePrint reached Ramlal Sharma, spokesperson of the Rajasthan BJP, over phone for comment on the low representation of women among the party’s candidates for the upcoming state elections, but had not received a response by the time of publication of this report. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
In Chhattisgarh, meanwhile, BJP leaders said the Congress’s inability to fulfill its 2018 promise of prohibition, could swing the women’s vote in favour of the BJP.
State BJP spokesperson Anurag Singh Deo told ThePrint that there was “anger” among women in the state who voted for the Congress in 2018 hoping that the party would ban the sale and consumption of alcohol.
“Forget banning, the consumption of alcohol is highest in Chhattisgarh. This has led to a rise in domestic violence and crimes,” he claimed.
The National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5), 2019-21, however, found that Arunachal Pradesh had the highest proportion of men and women consuming alcohol.
Asked about only 16.6 percent of the BJP’s candidates in the state being women, Deo said, “Winnability is key. To counter candidates from other parties, we need that kind of leadership. To some extent, across parties, women have not been empowered as much as they should have been.”
Telangana & Mizoram
In Telangana and Mizoram, where the BJP has been a relatively marginal force until now, the party is now hoping to shore up its electoral fortunes.
According to the Election Commission, the number of male and women voters in Telangana is 1.53 crore each, while in Mizoram, women voters outnumber their male counterparts — 1,063 women voters for every 1,000 male voters.
Telangana BJP spokesperson Sangappa Jenawade told ThePrint that though the women’s reservation law resonated with women voters, he felt that there weren’t enough winnable women candidates out there.
“When it comes to comparison with other parties like the TRS (now BRS) and the Congress, our party is giving more seats to women. We fielded a woman against KTR (state minister and son of CM KCR).”
Eleven of the Congress party’s 100 candidates declared so far in Telangana are women.
Adding that he believed “many women” will find mention in the BJP’s second list of candidates for the state, Jenawade admitted, however, “Of course, it may not be 33 percent” — the representation mentioned in the reservation law.
ThePrint also reached Mizoram BJP spokesperson F. Lalremsangi over phone for comment on representation of women among BJP candidates in the state, but had not received a response till the time of publication of this report . This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
However, political analysts believe a reckoning is not far. Women are now “consolidating” as a “vote bank”, which was not the case earlier, said Saxena.
“The biggest proof of this is the fact that a women’s reservation law was brought in and no political party opposed it. In 2019 Lok Sabha polls, for the first time, turnout of women voters was more than male voters,” she said.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
Also read: Women’s reservation in pipeline for 27 yrs, all about new bill & how it compares to 2010 version