Over a third of ticket seekers in UP Congress are women

More than a third of the applications for tickets for the upcoming UP elections received by Congress in UP are by women after UP general secretary in charge Priyanka Gandhi announced 40% tickets to be reserved for women for the polls.

The deadline for receiving applications was November 15 and the party has received about 6,000 applications, out of which between 2000-2,500 are women, UP Congress chief Ajay Lallu told ET. In October, in a big move, Gandhi Vadra had announced that the party will reserve 40% of tickets for UP elections for women in what she said was a bid to usher in a new kind of politics where women can play an "equal role".

Applications have come in from existing female party members of the organisation, zila panchayat members, those running social service organisations, among others, said Lallu, adding that zone-wise screening process for the same is on.


Nidhi Shukla, sister of poetess Madhumita Shukla who was killed in Lucknow at the behest of the then minister Amar Mani Tripathi is one of the applicants who reportedly wants to contest from Lakhimpur Kheri. Lallu confirmed Shukla has applied. Some of the other applicants are convenor of Bundelkhand Sena- an organisation that works to raise issues of the drought prone region and zila panchayat member from Chitrakoot Nirmala Bharti, he said.