Parties fail to walk the talk on tickets to women

Most parties seem to have failed to walk the talk on the issue of giving women their due share in nominations.

The number of women getting tickets in the nine segments of Faridabad and Palwal since 1967 remains abysmally low. The Congress has given tickets to four women six times; the BJP has fielded one woman three times. INLD has done somewhat better by giving tickets to three women between 2009 and 2019. The BSP has allotted a ticket to only one. Erstwhile Haryna Vikas Party and AAP fielded a woman candidate in 1991 and 2019.

The INLD fielded Jagjit Pannu from NIT and Rani Devi from Hathin in 2019 and Shashi Bala Tewatia from Prithla in 2009. AAP, which fielded one woman in 2019, has given tickets to men candidates from all six segments of Faridabad this time.

The Congress has fielded Sharda Rani, Daya Rani Chaudhary, Sharda Rathore and Parag Sharma in the region in past 58 years. Rani was able to get the ticket three times — 1968, 1972 and 1986.

While she got elected and served as Cabinet Minister, Chaudhary failed to win again from Hathin in 1996. However, Rathore, the third women candidate of the Congress from Ballabgarh got elected as MLA from here in 2005 and 2009. Unable to get a ticket this time, she is contesting as an Independent. Sharma is contesting as party candidate from Ballabgarh now.

Seema Trikha is perhaps the only woman in Faridabad and Palwal, who got a party ticket three times (2009, 2014 and 2019). While she won in the past two terms, the party has replaced her with a man candidate from here this time.

“Though women candidates had been aspiring to get tickets, they failed to make the cut due to poor lobbying or connections,” claimed Devinder Singh Surjewala, a political analyst, who adds that the claims of providing 33 per cent reservation to women in the polls seems to be a far cry.

Getting a raw deal

• The number of women getting tickets in the nine segments of Faridabad and Palwal since 1967 remains abysmally low
• The Congress has given tickets to four women six times while BJP has fielded just one woman three times
• INLD fielded three women between 2009 and 2019 while BSP just one woman
• Erstwhile Haryana Vikas Party and AAP fielded a woman candidate in 1991 and in 2019