Woman as CM for two terms, still Rajasthan has a dismal track record on women candidates

NewsBharati    23-Mar-2019
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Jaipur, Mar 23: Rajasthan is a state of valor and bravery. The participation of women in social events in Rajasthan is unfortunately low due to the value system and other social beliefs. This less representation of woman in the social spectrum is directly reflected in the political life of Rajasthan.

Rajasthan has had a woman chief minister from 2003 to 2008 and 2013 to 2018, BJP leader Vasundhara Raje. She is also the only women candidate contested and won five times starting from 1989 from Jhalawar seat.

The Participation of women candidates has continued to terribly low in Lok Sabha elections in Rajasthan, though there has been a modest increase over the last few decades. Previous 14 Lok Sabha elections held since 1852, only 108 women were in the fight, among them are repeat-nominees and only 28 were elected to the lower house from the state which has 25 constituencies.

The 7 Lok Sabha elections held between 1952 and 1989, not more than 6 women candidates had contested. The highest 31 women candidates were contesting in 2009 while the figure was just 2 in 1952 Lok Sabha elections when Sharda Bai and Rani Devi Bhargava contested from Bharatpur-Swai Madhopur and Pali-Sirohi seat respectively.

But both candidates lost their security deposits as they failed to get 1/6 of the votes polled.

As per the Election Commission data, among the other prominent women candidates who won are Gayatri Devi from Swatantra Party and Girija Vyas of the Congress who represented the state in parliament multiple times.

Gayatri Devi, the erstwhile Jaipur royal family member, was the only women candidate from the state who won the Lok Sabha election in 1962 with a record 77.08 % votes being polled in her favor. She represented Jaipur parliamentary constituency thrice.

Many other women MPs from the state too were from erstwhile royal families, including Krishna Kumari, who won in 1971 from Jodhpur, Krishnendra Kaur and Divya Singh, who represented Bharatpur in 1991 and 1996 respectively and Mahendra Kumari (Alwar-1991).

Vyas contested elections the highest seven times and won four times.

Election Commission data show The low representation of women in Lok Sabha elections reflects the bias they suffer in society, according to women lawmakers and political analysts who contend that giving 33% reservation to females in legislatures will address the gender imbalance in politics.

"Due to a male-dominated society, women did not get the chance to participate in politics for years. Though participation of women has increased over the years due to growing literacy and awareness about rights, 33 % reservation for women is still far from reality," says Sumitra Singh, a nine-time MLA, and former Rajasthan Assembly speaker.

Following 1991 when 14 women were in the electoral fight, the number of female candidates has started gradually increasing.

In 1996, 25 women contested elections followed by 20 in 1998, 15 in 1999, 31 in 2004 and 27 in 2014 polls, as per the EC data.