Chennai: For an alliance which pitched itself as an alternative to the Dravidian majors in Tamil Nadu and offered to change the course of state politics, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance has mysteriously chosen not to name a single woman candidate.
On the NDA front, the candidates were declared for all the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu but no women candidates were nominated by any of the seven parties. As part of the alliance, DMDK is contesting the lion’s share of the 14 seats, followed by the PMK in eight seats. MDMK and BJP are contesting seven seats each while the IJK, NJP and KDMK contest one seat each.
Altogether, the major political parties have named only 12 candidates in the six-cornered poll to be held on April 24. Interestingly, none of the political parties in the state has given due representation to women candidates in the Lok Sabha polls. The AIADMK, which is contesting all the 39 seats, has nominated only four women, while its arch rival DMK has fielded only two women candidates out of its 35 candidates.
The Congress, which has announced candidates for 38 seats, has named three women candidates. The Left parties, contesting 17 seats, have fielded three women. The Aam Aadmi Party, which has declared candidates for 17 seats so far, has not named a single woman candidate.
Regretting that the NDA could not field a single woman candidate in Tamil Nadu, BJP state general secretary Vanithi Srinivasan said that her party was not able to nominate a woman candidate as it is contesting very few seats in the state.
“All over India, very few women candidates were being fielded by political parties. Women will not get their due representation in Parliament unless the Women’s Reservation Bill is passed,” she said.
DMDK and PMK leaders cited lack of good women candidates and pressure to accommodate senior leaders as reasons for not fielding a woman candidate in this Lok Sabha election.
On the NDA’s failure to field women candidates, CPI (M) central committee member and North Chennai candidate U. Vasuki said that if these parties were voted to power, they would not pass the bill seeking 33 per cent reservation for women. “This is also an indication of how they see women. They see women as mere voters. They do not want to empower them and provide them leadership roles. It shows their regressive outlook,” she said.
Aam Aadmi Party state campaign committee (Tamil Nadu) member Ram Subramanium said that the party could not nominate a woman candidate as it was a fledgling party in the state.
“We have received very few applications from candidates interested in contesting the Lok Sabha polls. Of these, there are very few women,” he said, adding that in future elections they would be able to nominate a greater number of women candidates.
