Vijayawada: Political parties that claim to work for the empowerment and protection of women displayed a bias towards the sanction of tickets in the ongoing Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh.
The total number of voters in Andhra Pradesh is 3,93,41,770 of which 1,94,62,339 are men and 1,98,79,421 are women. The number of female voters is four lakhs higher than the number of male voters and consequently, women are dominating in 138 out of the total 175 Assembly seats.
Parties had promised to allot 33 per cent tickets to women but no political party actually delivered on this promise. The Telugu Desam gave 20 tickets to women, the Opposition YSR Congress and Congress parties gave 15 tickets each to women, the Jana Sena allotted 18 tickets and the BJP gave six tickets to women in the present AP Assembly election.
Women lamented that they are capable of performing well in politics but the political parties, despite promising to work for women empowerment, were reluctant to allot tickets to them.
The political party that wins 88 Assembly seats can form the government and therefore, all political parties are concentrating on winning over the women voters in the state in order to win the elections.
Women activists Ms D. Rama Devi, Ms P. Malleswari, and others argued that as per the 33 per cent quota allotted to women, every political party has to allot at least 58 tickets to women. They said that women play an important role in major political parties’ operations, in taking their ideas and principles to the masses.
However, the TD, YSRC, Congress, Jana Sena, and the BJP, which happen to be the major parties in the state, are reluctant to give at least 33 per cent tickets to women and that is severely objectionable. They said that it must be made mandatory for political parties to give at least 33 per cent tickets to women as being part of the legislation would give women the opportunity to bring women’s issues to the notice of the government and seek resolution for the same.
The AP women’s commission chairperson Ms N. Rajakumari lamented that although women happen to be the decisive factor in majority segments and that parties have been winning elections with support from women, it is rather unfortunate that political parties are reluctant to allot seats to women. She argued that women can work better than men to resolve women’s issues and hence, the representation of women in parties should be at least at 33 per cent and that political parties should, in fact, encourage women to participate in politics by allotting tickets to them during elections.
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