Bengaluru to bat for more women candidates in 2019 polls

BENGALURU: The United States is calling 2018 the ‘Year of the Woman’ after a historic number of women (over 100) won seats in its House of Representatives during the midterm elections. With hopes of a similar momentum back home, Bengaluru will be hosting the India Women’s Caucus (IWC) in December. A group of non-partisan women (and like-minded men) will join hands to enable more women to be elected to legislative Assemblies and Parliament in the 2019 elections.

“Political parties do not see representation of women as a priority. As a non-partisan pressure group, we will work with women politicians as well as build momentum among citizens,” said Tara Krishnaswamy of Citizens for Bengaluru, who is organising the event.

Despite Karnataka providing 50% reservation for women in urban local bodies, only 7% of the 3,374 candidates contesting the elections this year were women. National parties like the BJP and Congress fielded only six and 15 women candidates, respectively, she pointed out.


Of the 222 victorious candidates in the May Assembly elections, only seven (or 3.1%) were women. That is one more than in the 2013 elections. It is evident, Krishnaswamy said, that women who play an active role in solving neighbourhood issues or local activism do not have a career path in politics. Various barriers additionally prevent them from rising to leadership roles.

The IWC event, to be crowdsourced and community-led, will bring together about 200 women interested in gender-just politics. The event will have a resolution on the next steps toward 2019.

“It is important to achieve a critical mass of women in Parliament because ultimately, there is strength in numbers,” said the organiser.

Former bureaucrat Renuka Vishwanathan, who contested the Assembly polls from Shantinagar on an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ticket, said one must do away with the idea that women are not “winnable” candidates. “While you cannot give someone a ticket just because she is a woman, it is important to view candidature in a gender-neutral manner,” she said.

“Women candidates face discrimination both within and outside their parties, but the scenario is changing with self-driven women working and volunteering more aggressively on-ground.” Technological access, reducing generation gap, urbanisation and rise of village-level sanghas led by woman will gradually lead to inclusive politics, said political analyst Preethi Nagaraj.

“Women in office are generally uncomfortable with male equations. Since power is usually associated with men, for us, that means behaving like men or emulating male mentors,” she said. “Not being a male should not be seen as a limitation. It should enable us to work on alternative strategies.”