Women queue up for ticket as
Cong prepares for poll
From K V Prasad
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Oct 17 — Irrespective of the fact that the Congress is yet to set aside a definite quota for women in allotment of seats for the forthcoming assembly elections in four states, a large number of them are queuing up for the ticket.

Though the Congress supports the Bill providing for one-third reservation for women in Parliament and state assemblies, in absence of any legislation the best that the party workers can hope is that the Pachmarhi declaration will be followed in letter and spirit.

The Congress has committed itself to "substantial enhanced representation of women at all echelons of the party organisation and in the distribution of ticket for elections to the state assemblies and Parliament’’, as per Clause 2 (political section) of the Pachmarhi declaration adopted last month.

As of date, 200-odd women have applied to the All-India Mahila Congress, the frontal organisation of the party. "There is fresh enthusiasm and ‘chetna’ among women and those who are coming forward are committed to work for the party, whether they get the ticket or not,’’ Mrs Ambika Soni said.

She attributed the increase in women’s participation to the influence of the Congress president, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, who she said, held regular interaction with the Mahila Congress.

The applicants include some 100-odd from Rajasthan, which has an assembly strength of 200, 50 from Delhi (assembly strength 70), 70 plus from Madhya Pradesh (assembly strength 320) and more than five from Mizoram (assembly strength 40).

The Mahila Congress chief said the applicants would be shortlisted after a meeting with the Pradesh Mahila Congress presidents and the Pradesh Congress Committees before being sent to the central leadership for recommendation.

The number of aspirants could be more since some applications are being received at the state level. "There could be some duplication and some new cases, a final list will be drawn up before taking these up,’’ Mrs Soni explained.

Among the aspirants were members of minority communities including Sikh women from Rajasthan.

Asked why the Congress did not take a lead by allotting one-third seats to women during the forthcoming elections, instead of being critical of the government for its failure to introduce the Women’s Reservation Bill, the Mahila Congress chief said: "The Congress has committed itself to substantial enhanced representation of women and Mrs Sonia Gandhi is keen that the Congress workers get their due’’.

In any case, she said, winnability was a major factor irrespective of gender.

The forthcoming elections are being considered a test for the Congress leadership and Mrs Sonia Gandhi has attempted to collect inputs from various sources. She has set up several teams of observers apart from regular inputs from the PCCs and specially commissioned surveys to assess the party position.