Priyanka Gandhi To Give 40 Percent Tickets To Women In UP: Will It Be A Game Changer?

UP Election Congress Tickets To Women: The General Secretary of All Indian Congress Committee Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in charge of Uttar Pradesh, on Tuesday announced that 40 percent of Congress party tickets are reserved for women for the upcoming state assembly polls in 2022. The quota allocation was met with massive praise for the politician on social media as it would mean that out of a total of 403 assembly seats, 160 will be contested by women.

Priyanka Gandhi while making the announcement said that earlier the allocation was decided on 50 percent but after discussion, it was brought down to 40 percent.

While the declaration shows promise of notable female representation in the Uttar Pradesh assembly, a lot is hanging on the Congress party's campaign regarding the elections. The past few years have barely shown good results for the party whether it is the Lok Sabha elections or state assembly polls.

Quota Move? Will UP Election Congress Tickets To Women Herald Change?

Naturally, Vadra was asked if the allotted quota to women will lead to Congress leaders fielding their wives and other female members of their family in the hopes of being in power indirectly. The Congress leader said that there is nothing wrong with it as it will still empower women. Although she added that the nomination will be based solely on merit.

Vadra cited the new announcement part of her 'fight to bring change in Indian politics'. Giving preference to women in a male-dominated political scenario of Indian politics makes sense but is there a guarantee of better governance just because the person holding the chair is a woman? Not always. There is also no clarity about the Congress party allotting tickets to Dalit women and women from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

A push in the direction of greater female leadership, however, perhaps rings in signs of changing times. Maybe stronger women leading Congress will be to the benefit of the party's position and power.

Big Step Going Forward: What Data Shows

Considering data from the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections of 2017, Congress' pledge to give 40 percent tickets to women seems a positive development likely to result in far better female representation in Uttar Pradesh politics. Congress has not been one to field many women during elections. In 2017, the party had just one woman MLA in the assembly elections of Uttar Pradesh.

Bharatiya Janta Party on the other hand fielded 43 women candidates out of which 32 won the elections. A total of 40 women won seats in the 2017 assembly elections in the state, it was the highest number since the independence. As per the data, 96 women were given tickets by different parties.

Now that Congress alone will field 160 women in 2022, the chances of a better outcome than 2017 are high. There is also a chance that other political parties influenced by Congress increase the number of candidates contesting their tickets.

Female Representation in Indian Politics 

With only 14.58 percent representation of women in the Indian Parliament, the country lies far behind. The male politicians in India are still making public statements blaming women for the sexual crimes against them and the total fabric of the nation is still laced with patriarchal ideologies.

Political parties anyway clench their palms when it comes to giving tickets to women candidates during elections and the list of winners ends up showing even fewer women.

In the 2021 assembly polls of West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress party gave tickets to 48 women candidates becoming the party with the highest number of women on the candidate list for 288 seats. While Bharatiya Janta Party fielded 38 women candidates. On the whole 240 contested the elections out of which only 40 stood as winners of their respective seats.

According to a report by Hindustan Times, out of all the candidates who ran for their constituency in different state assembly polls in 2021, women constituted only 10.4 percent.

For a country with 48.04 percent female population, it is vital to have similar female representation in governance. In an equal society, many have raised objections against giving quotas to the underrepresented. In this case, women candidates getting a 40 per cent ticket quota can raise the same questions but if society has favoured men for decades, shouldn't women be given some leeway so that they start to match up? After all equity is far better than equality.

Views expressed are the author's own. 

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