When Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his campaign for Karnataka
Assembly election, one of his slogans was "Beta, Beti Ek Saman" –
stressing on equality among men and women, alike.
Now that the elections in the southern state are just a day away, a look at the BJP’s 224 candidates shows a surprising statistic: the number of women candidates fielded by the party is only 6
This does not even amount to the 3 % of the total candidates fielded by the BJP.
But the BJP isn’t the only party which has fielded very few women candidates.
The other two main contenders, the Congress and the JD (S) also doesn’t have much to offer when it comes to fielding women candidates.
While the Congress has fielded 15 candidates, the Janata Dal Secular has only fielded 4
This dismal women representation is despite the fact that Karnataka is a state where almost 49 per cent of the voting population constitutes of women.
However, this is not the first time when Karnataka has seen fewer women contesting the polls. The state of affairs in the last elections wasn’t much different either.
In the 2013 elections, there were 175 female candidates of the 2,945 candidates. The Congress gave tickets to 8; the BJP had 7 contestants and JD(S) scored high among the parties with 12 candidates in the fray. Sixty seven of the women were independents.
This, in turn, directly impacted the number of women in the state Assembly. Currently, Karnataka has one of the lowest women representation in Assemblies across India with just only three women representatives in the house. That is a less than 3% of the total strength.
In fact, the highest representation of women in the Assembly was in the year 1962 when 18 of the women won the polls out of the 30 fielded candidates.
Now that the elections in the southern state are just a day away, a look at the BJP’s 224 candidates shows a surprising statistic: the number of women candidates fielded by the party is only 6
This does not even amount to the 3 % of the total candidates fielded by the BJP.
But the BJP isn’t the only party which has fielded very few women candidates.
The other two main contenders, the Congress and the JD (S) also doesn’t have much to offer when it comes to fielding women candidates.
While the Congress has fielded 15 candidates, the Janata Dal Secular has only fielded 4
This dismal women representation is despite the fact that Karnataka is a state where almost 49 per cent of the voting population constitutes of women.
However, this is not the first time when Karnataka has seen fewer women contesting the polls. The state of affairs in the last elections wasn’t much different either.
In the 2013 elections, there were 175 female candidates of the 2,945 candidates. The Congress gave tickets to 8; the BJP had 7 contestants and JD(S) scored high among the parties with 12 candidates in the fray. Sixty seven of the women were independents.
This, in turn, directly impacted the number of women in the state Assembly. Currently, Karnataka has one of the lowest women representation in Assemblies across India with just only three women representatives in the house. That is a less than 3% of the total strength.
In fact, the highest representation of women in the Assembly was in the year 1962 when 18 of the women won the polls out of the 30 fielded candidates.
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