KARIMNAGAR: Major political parties in Telangana that ostensibly support the Women’s Reservation Bill seem to have accorded a raw deal to the State’s women, in terms of allotment of seats for the ensuing Assembly polls.
Across parties, a total of three women have been fielded as candidates in the entire erstwhile Karimnagar — a district that houses as many as 13 Assembly constituencies. While neither the TRS nor Congress parties have entertained the politics of inclusion in the district, the effort has come from two surprising quarters. Two of the women candidates are from the BJP, a party frequently dubbed anti-women by the country’s liberals, while the third has been fielded by the Nationalist Congress Party. As per track record, ever since the formation of NCP in 1952, only 5 women from the party have been elected into either an Assembly or the Parliament.
While the two BJP candidates B Vanitha and B Shobha are contesting for the Ramagundam and Choppadandi seats respectively, the NCP candidate Dubbala Neeraja is fighting for the Manakondur seat. The remaining 10 constituencies have only men as candidates. Many women aspirants have expressed their dissatisfaction with the situation and alleged the political parties of being unjust toward the fairer sex.
“Compared to others, the BJP has given more consideration to women.
We gave them two seats in the district while the other prominent parties have given none,” claimed BJP district vice president Gajula Swapna, adding that the TRS and Congress parties should have allocated at least one ticket to a woman.
TPCC official spokesperson Regulapati Ramya Rao, who is also the niece of TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, is also highly disappointed with the turn of events. Ramya Rao was an aspirant for the Karimnagar ticket which she failed to win.