NEW DELHI: Will reserving 40% of party tickets for women candidates in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections help Congress improve its electoral strength? Experts this newspaper spoke to felt this could become an example for other parties, but may not result in immediate gains for the party in UP.
“It’s too late to expect instant results in UP polls. There is no magic which can help Congress reap immediate benefits,” said Sanjay Kumar, acclaimed political analyst and psephologist associated with The Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.
Dr Anjana Kumari, political researcher with the Department of Political Science under Delhi University, opined: “Congress’s effort to woo women voters in UP seems to be a futile exercise as the gender issue is not at the fore here. The party has portrayed itself as gender-friendly by making this announcement. But it does not touch burning issues like police atrocities against SCs, minorities and other weaker sections.”
According to her research in the wake of the last three UP Assembly elections, issues like deteriorating economic condition of the middle class and unemployment are likely to dominate the psyches of electorates in UP.
Ajit K Jha, Oxford-trained UP elections expert, said merely this announcement would not suffice for Congress in order to return to power. “This announcement is a wonderful first step in the direction of women empowerment and increasing female representation in the UP Assembly. But Congress has very little support as was evident in 2014, 2017 and 2019,” Jha said.
“The only winning formula for the opposition in UP is an across the board alliance of Congress, SP, BSP and RLD. Unless such a pre-poll secular alliance is formed, it will be advantage BJP,” added Jha, who thinks Congress should bring in an OBC face as a strategy.
But Supriya Satyam, senior political analyst in Delhi, said many parties have in the past tried to woo women voters with similar experiments and in some states these have succeeded. But is some states they have not. “In UP, only an announcement of 40% tickets reserved for women cannot be enough,” she opined.
Anita Kumari, researcher on participation of women in Indian politics after Independence, differed. “This Congress move is a historic one in the politics of country. It may partially succeed in UP, also because of the fact that similar moves by TMC in Bengal in recent elections and the JD-U in local bodies elections in Bihar had succeeded.”
