KOCHI : The Congress list of Lok Sabha candidates announced on Friday has thrown up a contradictory picture.
While the party advocates for increased women representation and supports the Women’s Reservation Bill, it has fielded just one woman in Kerala for the upcoming general elections. Remya Haridas, its candidate from Alathur, is the lone woman in the Congress’ as well as the UDF’s list. In contrast, both the LDF as well as BJP are fielding three women in Kerala.
In 2019, two women had figured in the Congress’ list of 16 candidates: Remya Haridas in Alathur and Shanimol Osman in Alappuzha. Remya won in the traditionally Left-leaning bastion. Shanimol was not so lucky.
This time, with Congress choosing to field AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal from Alappuzha, Remya is now the sole woman candidate of the grand old party.
In the LDF, CPM has fielded two women – former health minister K K Shailaja in Vadakara and councillor K J Shine in Ernakulam – and the CPI one – Annie Raja in Wayanad.
The list of the BJP, which is contesting 12 seats, also has three women: Sobha Surendran in Alappuzha, Nivedita Subrahmanian in Ponnani and M L Ashwini in Kasaragod.
“Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had in May 1989 first planted the seed of women reservation in elected bodies by introducing the Constitution Amendment Bill to provide one-third reservation to women in rural and urban local bodies. In 2010, during the UPA regime, the Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha but wasn’t taken up in the Lok Sabha for voting,” said a woman Congress leader who did not wish to be named.
In 2024, Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and K C Venugopal supported the Bill in Parliament. “Rahul Gandhi, during a Mahila Congress Conference in Kochi said 50% of its chief ministers in future will be women. He said the party will also ensure more representation to women. However, the party has not walked the talk,” the leader said.
When contacted, Rajya Sabha MP and Mahila Congress state president Jebi Mather said the women’s unit is currently focused on ensuring the victory of all 20 UDF candidates in Kerala.
“People are fed up with the anti-people regime of both Centre and the state government. The primary objective of the Congress is to end this. It’s not the time to make claims. We are working to ensure the victory of UDF’s 20 candidates,” Jebi said.
A look into the past
A look at the history of women MPs from the state throws up an interesting picture. Over the seven decades since 1952, Kerala has elected only 12 women MPs to the Lok Sabha, placing it among the states having consistently low representation of women. Until 2019, CPM had nine women MPs, while Congress had just two.