New Delhi: More than half of the women members in the current Lok Sabha — about 55 percent to be precise — are dynasts or come from political families, indicating that women from non-political backgrounds may have a lower share in political power, shows ThePrint’s analysis of data available on the Digital Sansad website
This is, however, expected to change when the women’s reservation bill, which provides for one-third reservation for women (about 33 percent) in the lower house of Parliament and state assemblies, comes into effect. The bill was cleared by both houses of Parliament last week, but will come into effect following the next census, and delimitation of constituencies based on that census.
With the implementation of the reservation, likely by 2029 or later, the number of women MPs in the 545-member Lok Sabha is expected to surge from the current 82 to 181.
Of the existing 82 women Lok Sabha MPs, 45 are dynasts, according to ThePrint analysis. The dynasts include those whose family members were or are members of any of the Houses of Parliament or state legislatures. These family members include spouses, in-laws or blood relations.
When it comes to having an elected representative as spouse, of these 45 women Lok Sabha MPs, the husbands of 23 are currently, or were, MPs or MLAs, the analysis shows.
Political analysts believe that the trend of women MPs from political dynasties would continue initially, after the reservation bill’s implementation, but things might change with emergence of more women leaders at the grassroots-level.
Speaking to ThePrint about women MPs hailing from dynastic backgrounds, Professor Sanjay Kumar from the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, said the “matter would be of concern initially”.
“We cannot expect all of a sudden that one-third or 181 women MPs would come (forward to fight elections). I am not saying that 181 women won’t be found that can be given tickets. The concern would be that all parties will try to give tickets to women who can win. It is likely that proxy candidates will come up. And proxy candidates will largely come from political families — wives, sisters, mothers and daughters (of men in positions of power).”
He added that the dynastic trend would continue initially but “in the time to come, it may as well change”.
Kumar further claimed that the reason women are underrepresented in the Lok Sabha and assemblies is that “parties just don’t give tickets”.
“Parties only give tickets to those candidates who they think can win elections. The probability to win, parties feel, is higher when a women leader is from a political background. That is why, most of the women who have got elected in the past seem to be coming from a [political] dynasty. The fact is that women candidates from non-dynastic backgrounds are barely ever given a ticket,” he claimed.
Rasheed Kidwai, another political analyst, was of the view that dynastic background has helped women in politics, especially at the entry level.
“Dynastic culture is anti-democracy because it means giving undue advantage. At the same time, dynastic culture has in fact helped women. Therefore, when you come across such [ThePrint analysis] statistics, it makes you wonder if the [political] dynasty is too bad or whether it is part of the system which is providing something positive,” he said.
Raising concern about “women workers not being able to come forward at the ground-level”, Kidwai added, “(former Congress president) Sonia Gandhi and some other women have made it big by virtue of their dynastic background, but otherwise women are not made party presidents or put in influential positions. Women have to fight very hard”.
All this, however, might change now with 454 Lok Sabha MPs voting in favour of, and only two against, the women’s reservation Bill last week, indicating a willingness among political parties to give tickets to women in larger numbers.
Also Read: What is delimitation & why enactment of women’s reservation bill depends on it
A look at the numbers
The BJP currently has 42 women MPs in the Lok Sabha, with 19 coming from dynastic backgrounds, according to ThePrint analysis.
The Congress has seven women parliamentarians in the Lok Sabha, of which five are from a political background. The Trinamool Congress has nine women MPs in the Lower House, with three coming from political families, while the Biju Janata Dal has five, of which two hail from political families.
The Shiv Sena and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam have two women Lok Sabha MPs each who come from a political background, and the YSR Congress Party has four, with one from a dynastic background.
There are nine other women Lok Sabha MPs among the present number who come from dynastic backgrounds. They belong to parties such as the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Apna Dal (Sonelal), Shiromani Akali Dal, Lok Janshakti Party, Bharat Rashtra Samithi, National People’s Party, Janata Dal (United) and Nationalist Congress Party — all with one woman MP each, all from political families.
Some of the prominent present women Lok Sabha MPs from political families include NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule, former Lok Sabha speaker P.A. Sangma’s daughter Agatha Sangma and former Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal’s wife Harsimrat Kaur.
Of the 82 women MPs in this Lok Sabha, 80 have fought from various political parties, while two are Independents — Sumalatha Ambareesh from Mandya and Navneet Kaur Rana from Amravati, both having political connections.
While Rana’s husband Ravi Rana is a three-time MLA, Sumalatha’s husband Ambareesh was a noted actor and an MP from Manya.
As many as 78 women MPs were elected in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, with the number rising to 82 with the addition of four women who successfully contested bypolls.
Dimple Yadav, wife of former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and SP leader Akhilesh Yadav, won the seat of Mainpuri which was vacated due to her father-in-law Mulayam Singh Yadav’s death last year. Congress’s Pratibha Singh, wife of former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh, won the byelections from Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, last year.
The seat of Dadra and Nagar Haveli was won by Kalaben Delkar, wife of Mohan Delkar, seven-time MP from the constituency whose death in 2021 had necessitated the bypoll. The wife of former Union minister Suresh Angadi, Mangala Angadi, won the seat of Belgaum in Karnataka in the 2021 bypoll after her husband’s demise.
The representation of women Lok Sabha MPs from political families cuts across geographies. From Tamil Nadu, Kanimozhi Karunanidhi and Thamizhachi Thangapandian are daughters of former chief minister M. Karunanidhi and late DMK leader V. Thangapandian, respectively.
Similarly, in Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena’s other woman MP — apart from Kalaben Delkar — is Bhavana Gawali, the daughter of former MP Pundlikrao Gawali.
The BJP, which often accuses opposition parties of dynastic politics, also has some notable women MPs hailing from political families.
These include Maneka Gandhi, the daughter-in-law of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Poonam Mahajan, daughter of former Union minister Pramod Mahajan, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, daughter of former UP chief minister H.N. Bahuguna, and Mala Rajya Laxmi, daughter-in-law of former eight-time MP from Tehri Garhwal, Manabendra Shah, among others.
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha Tuesday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had said that “all political parties have this habit that they give tickets to weaker women”, advocating for a sub-quota for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the women’s quota.
“Tickets are given to such women of weaker sections that they should not open their mouth… It is so in all parties of the country and that is why women are lagging behind. You do not allow them to speak and don’t allow their rights,” he had explained.
Kharge’s remark had, however, drawn criticism from the treasury benches, with Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman saying that the “sweeping statement” of Kharge on women candidates was “absolutely unacceptable”.
“I speak on behalf of all our women. We all have been empowered by our party, by our Honourable Prime Minister. Honourable Rashtrapati Droupadi Murmu ji is an empowered woman. Every (female) MP of my party is an empowered woman,” she said.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: Why India won’t see women’s reservation in effect until 2039—it’s about trickery