Around 8% of total candidates in Gujarat polls are women candidates: Report

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its traditional opposition Congress have continued their tradition of giving tickets to a few women, but this time the number of such candidates they have fielded is higher than before. 2017 election.

The BJP has given tickets to 18 women candidates as against 12 in 2017, while the Congress has fielded 14 women, though the figure was 10 in the last assembly election. Both the parties have also accommodated more women candidates from Dalit and tribal communities this time.

Congress candidate from Sayajiganj seat in Vadodara, Ami Rawat, said women’s representation will increase when the bill granting 33 per cent reservation to women is passed in Parliament, while BJP’s state women’s wing chief Dipikaben Sarvada said her party is already It is doing so by giving important positions, including the presidency, to women.

According to the data provided by the Election Commission, there are a total of 1,621 candidates in the fray in next month’s Gujarat elections, which are scheduled to be held in two phases – on December 1 and December 5. Of them, 139 are women candidates, of whom 56 are contesting as candidates. Independent.

In 2017, there were 126 women candidates out of a total of 1,828 contestants. That year, Gujarat sent 13 women candidates to the assembly. These include nine BJP MLAs and four Congress MLAs. Election Commission data shows that the security deposit of 104 women contestants was forfeited.

Speaking to PTI over phone, Congress’s Rawat said, “Our party has introduced a bill for 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament, which was not accepted by the BJP.” of their homes.”

She said that even in developed countries, women had to struggle for their franchise. BJP’s Sarvada said that the way BJP has given representation to women at all levels shows that the party is serious about their welfare.

He said, “Today our 18 sisters got a chance to contest elections and in the coming days they will get a chance to be in the state cabinet. One of them will become the women and child development minister.”

always said it’s only BJP Which will work to give more representation to women in the coming times. He said the Congress’s demand for 33 per cent reservation for women in Assemblies and Lok Sabha would be unfair to the party’s male workers.

“The number of party’s male workers is more and they should get a fair chance. So this kind of reservation is not necessary,” he said.

Among other parties, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which fielded candidates in all 182 candidates – including one who withdrew from the race – has fielded only six women candidates and three of them are scheduled candidates. Contesting from a seat reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST). seats.

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), which is contesting 13 seats, has given tickets to two women, one from the Muslim and the other from the Dalit community. It has fielded Zainabi Shaikh from Vejalpur and Kaushikaben Parmar from Danilimda. Both the seats are in Ahmedabad city.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has fielded 13 women candidates for the upcoming elections. She is fighting on 101 seats. The BJP has dropped five of the nine sitting women MLAs and re-elected four of them – Malati Maheshwari from the Scheduled Caste (SC)-reserved Gandhidham, Geeta Jadeja from Gondal, Sangeeta Patil from Asarwa and the SC-reserved Vadodara City seats. Manisha Advocate.

The Congress, on the other hand, has repeated two of its four women legislators. Asha Patel, who had won from Unjha as a Congress candidate and later joined the BJP, died due to health complications. The Congress has fielded Jeniben Thakor from Vav and Chandrika Baria from Garbada, a seat reserved for Scheduled Tribes.

In a positive move, both the parties have fielded more Dalit and Adivasi women candidates in reserved constituencies than in 2017. As against two women in SC-reserved seats and one woman in ST-reserved seats in 2017, the BJP has fielded four candidates. and two, respectively, for the upcoming elections.

In Morva Hadaf, a seat reserved for STs, the main candidates of the BJP and the Congress are women.

For the Congress too, the tally has seen a rise. With one woman candidate on the ST-reserved seat and none on the SC-reserved seat, the Congress has fielded one candidate on SC and four on ST-reserved seats for the 2022 elections.

Among the national parties, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has also given ticket to a woman candidate.

BJP It has fielded women candidates from the SC-reserved seats of Gandhidham, Rajkot Rural, Asarwa and Vadodara City, and the ST-reserved seats of Nandod and Morwa Hadaf. The ruling party has fielded women from Wadhawan, Rajkot West, Gondal, Jamnagar North, Limbayat, Byad, Naroda, Thakkarbapa Nagar, Patan, Kutiyana, Bhavnagar East, Patan and Gandhinagar North.

The BJP has fielded cricketer Ravindra Jadeja’s wife Rivaba from Jamnagar North and Payal Kukrani, daughter of Naroda Patiya riots convict Manoj Kukrani, from Naroda seat.

The Congress has fielded four women candidates on ST-reserved seats—Dediapada, Morwa Hadaf, Mahuva and Garbada—and one woman candidate from SC-reserved Bardoli. Limbdi, Karanj, Ghatlodiya, Sayajiganj, Manjalpur, Pardi, Vav, Naranpura and Godhra are some other seats from where women are contesting as the oldest candidates of the party.

AAP has fielded three women candidates from ST-reserved seats- Jhagadia, Jetpur and Mandvi. It has also fielded women from Gondal, Una and Talaja.

The text of this story is published from a wire agency feed without any modification. Only the headline has been changed.