World | India
Women get a raw deal in Delhi polls
As Delhi prepares to vote on November 29, women voters are by and large far from happy with the two main contenders for power.
- By Ajay Jha, Chief Correspondent
- Published: 23:27 November 22, 2008
New Delhi: As Delhi prepares to vote on November 29, women voters are by and large far from happy with the two main contenders for power.
Both the ruling Congress party and its archrival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have fielded just seven and three candidates respectively for the 70-member legislative assembly.
Despite all talk of giving women 33 per cent reservation in Parliament and state assemblies, the number of women candidates has shown a decline, making it clear that both major parties lack confidence in women to win them elections.
Compared to 11 candidates fielded by the Congress party in the 2003 assembly elections, of whom six won, the number has come down to just seven this time. The worse scenario being two sitting women legislators have been denied nomination this time. Veteran Tajdar Babar, who represented the now disbanded Minto Road constituency during all three previous assembly elections, has been denied nomination while Meera Bhardwaj, who won Mandawali seat for the party twice has also been ignored.
Anjali Rai and Kiran Walia, who won Paharganj and Hauz Khas seats respectively, have been forced to change their constituencies after the recent delimitation exercise. While Walia has shifted to the nearby Malviya Nagar constituency, Rai is seeking re-election from Moti Nagar seat with little chances of winning as Moti Nagar is a BJP stronghold.
Incidentally, Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, who was also forced to shift form her Gole Market constituency to New Delhi seat after Gole Market disappeared from Delhi's electoral map, has very little to explain on the decline in number of women candidates. "I am a woman, our party chief [Sonia Gandhi] is a woman. We would obviously like to encourage women to come forward," she said.
The BJP on the other hand is more forthcoming in its explanation. None of its women candidates could win in 2003. According to the BJP state unit chief Harshvardhan, winning chances is what matters most.
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