Delhi Polls: BJP, AAP, Congress fail to ensure gender equality

NEW DELHI: Women's safety and empowerment may be a major poll plank for BJP, AAP and Congress, but when it comes to ticket distribution, all three seem to have faltered in ensuring gender equality.

BJP, which is projecting former IPS officer Kiran Bedi as the CM candidate, has given tickets to seven other women. With eight women candidates, BJP's tally is the highest among all the three parties. While AAP has fielded six candidates, the Congress list includes only five women.

That politics continues to be a male bastion is apparent from the fact that of the 673 candidates in the fray, there are only 63 women against 610 men for the February 7 polls.

The saffron party has fielded women candidates from key constituencies. Kiran Bedi will be contesting from Krishna Nagar. Another high-profile candidate, Krishna Tirath, former Union minister who recently joined BJP, will fight from Patel Nagar.

The others on the BJP list include former mayor and sitting councilor Rajni Abbi, a contestant from Timarpur. To take on AAP's CM candidate Arvind Kejriwal, BJP has fielded former DUSU president Nupur Sharma. Sitting councilor Sarita Chaudhary will fight from Mehrauli. Another sitting councilor Rekha Gupta has been offered the Shalimar Bagh seat. Former MLA Sunil Vaidya's wife Kiran Vaidya will contest from Trilokpuri after his sudden demise.

In Malviya Nagar, BJP's Nandini Sharma will make her debut against AAP's Somnath Bharti and Congress veteran Yoganand Shastri.

Chandni Chowk MP Harshvardhan said, "We have eight contestants and there is no disagreement over the fact that there should be more. In fact, BJP's organizational base makes women's representation from the grassroots level mandatory. Maybe creating reservation, like it exists in the municipal corporations, is the best way to get more women candidates."

Kejriwal pointed out that the 2013 assembly had three women MLAs and they were all from AAP. Stressing that this year AAP has given tickets to six women candidates, Kejriwal said, "I am not saying this is a very good thing but I wish that in the next five years we should be able to bring more women to the fore and make one-third representation for women in the assembly a norm."

AAP has fielded former Congress member Alka Lamba from Chandni Chowk. It has given tickets to Pramila Tokas for RK Puram, Bandana Kumari for Shalimar Bagh, Sarita Singh for Rohtas Nagar and Bhawna Gaur for Palam.

Admitting that five is a small number, DPCC president Arvinder Singh said, "We wanted to field at least 10-12 women candidates but since the contest was very tough this time we had to go for those with potential to win the elections." The Congress list includes former minister and MLA Kiran Walia who will take on Kejriwal in New Delhi. President Pranab Mukherjee's daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee has been given ticket from Greater Kailash. Rinku, a sitting councilor from Nand Nagri will contest from Gokalpur. Meenakshi Chandela daughter-in-law of former MLA Dayanand Chandela, will fight from Rajouri Garden. Former MLA Rambir Shokeen's wife Reeta Shokeen is the contestant from Mundka.