Bengaluru, Jun 13: The victory of Sowmya Reddy in prestigious Jayanagar Constituency takes the tally of women legislators in the new Karnataka Legislative Assembly to eight.
(from top to left) Sowmya Reddy, Lakshmi R Hebbalkar, M Roopakala, Kaneez Fatima, Anjali Hemant Nimbalkar, Shashikala Annasaheb Jolle, K Poornima, Roopali Santosh Naik.On May 15 when results of 222 assembly constituencies were announced seven only women had registered victory – four from Congress and three from BJP. The poll in Jayanagar was rescheduled for June 11 following the death of BJP candidate. The results were announced today. Sowmya Reddy, daughter of former home minister Ramalinga Reddy defeated her closest rival BN Prahalad of BJP by a margin of 2889 votes.
The other women Congress MLAs in the assembly are Lakshmi R Hebbalkar from Belgaum Rural; M Roopakala, daughter of seven-time Kolar MP K H Muniyappa; Kaneez Fatima (wife of late Qamarul Islam), who represented Gulbarga Uttar; and Anjali Hemant Nimbalkar from Khanapur.
The three women MLAs of BJP are Shashikala Annasaheb Jolle from Nippani; K Poornima (Hiriyur); and Roopali Santosh Naik (Karwar).
Of the total 2,655 candidates in the fray for 222 seats, elections to which were held on May 12, only 216 were women.
Major parties, like in previous state elections, did not prefer to give tickets to women candidates. While the Congress fielded 15 women candidates, the BJP fielded six, and the Janata Dal-Secular only four.
“This is the reason why we need Women's Reservation Bill. This is the problem with every party. There is no point saying that I gave 15 tickets, and BJP gave six. The fact is that both numbers are less,” All India Mahila Congress President Sushmita Dev said.
She said that affirmative action is required when social or political factors don't allow empowerment of a section of society.
"When you are not doing something naturally, you are compelled to do by law," she said, adding that election after election, every party was falling short of women candidates.
"... men don't want to share space. They are just not willing to share the political space with women."
Dev said she feels that the political empowerment of women cannot be judged by one important post a member of the fairer sex is holding.
"You cannot looking at political empowerment of women by just looking at one Chief Minister and one Defence Minister. That's a fallacy.
In 2013, only 29 women were given tickets by the three major parties. The JD-S and Congress had allotted just 11 tickets each to women candidates, while the BJP had given to seven. Sixty-seven women contested as independents. And of the total 175 women who contested, only six had won.
According to the Election Commission, the number of women voters has increased to 2.44 crore from 2.13 crore in 2013.
In 2013, Umashree was one of the three women MLAs of Congress and was made a Minister in Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s Cabinet and expectedly given charge of Women and Child Development Department.
Dev agreed that though WCD was an important department, it was unfair to assign it to women only.
"A lot of things depend on that department... but it should open its doors to men also. It shouldn't be typecast. It shouldn't be a norm that it only goes to a woman," she said.
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