8/48: Women's quota gets short shrift in state

MUMBAI: Only eight women have been fielded for the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra by the four leading parties, three of which have been vociferous about giving 33 per cent representation to women in the state legislature.
The BJP, Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Shiv Sena have given tickets to two women contestants each. The Sena is the only party among them which is opposed to 33 per cent reservation for women.According to the final list of candidates published by the state election department, there are 29 women candidates (of a total of 419) in the fray in the state, most being independents. In the 1999 election, there were 17 women contestants.
Although none of the spokespersons of the four political parties wished to go on record, they said privately that ‘elective merit’ was the prime factor taken into account while giving out tickets.
When asked whether their parties lacked women with ‘elective merit’ or whether the women had not staked their claim to tickets, the party spokespersons said that although most of their women activists were well-educated, they lacked the money and muscle-power needed to win an election.
The spokespersons said, somewhat apologetically, that their respective parties would attempt to fieldmore women candidates for the assembly elections due in September this year. “But the Lok Sabha election is too important for us to take any risks,’’ they added.