Women to get 12 seats in erstwhile Godavari dists under the new reservation system

KAKINADA: A substantial number of seats now represented by men in legislative bodies will go to women once the 33 per cent political reservations are accorded to them.

More seats would go for women if the allocation is done by taking the district as a unit. The other way is to take the state as a unit and give one-third of the total seats to women.

Under the proposed reservation system, as many as 12 assembly seats will have to be allocated to women in the erstwhile Godavari districts. As a result, many men would lose not only seats but also their political relevance.

After the bifurcation of AP, many leaders, mainly from the Congress party, lost their political relevance. The same situation may repeat once the women's reservation law comes into force. Some of these male leaders may stand aside and field their family members.

Notably, several women members of political families have won the civic elections because of the quota system for local body polls.

Many women expressed their joy over the 33 per cent reservations being offered to them in the future, though not in the next round of elections. Former Kakinada mayor Sunkara Pavani said this would provide an opportunity for women to prove their leadership qualities.

There were 34 assembly constituencies in the erstwhile East and West Godavari districts before the bifurcation of districts. There are 19 assembly constituencies in East Godavari including Rampachodavaram and 15 in West Godavari. But there are only three women MLAs from these two districts --- home minister Taneti Vanitha from Kovvuru constituency, Nagulapalli Dhanalakshmi from Rampachodavaram (YSRC) and Adireddy Bhavani from Rajamahendravaram Urban (Telugu Desam).

Now, the Rampachodavaram constituency comes under the Alluri Sitarama Raju district. There are 35 constituencies in the new Godavari districts. The Nuzvid constituency comes under the Eluru district. Only one woman, Vanga Githa, is representing the Kakinada Lok Sabha constituency out of five LS constituencies in these two districts.

YSRC’s Ambedkar Konaseema district president and Mummidivaram MLA Ponnada Satish said, that under the quota system, more than 55 seats can be allocated to women in the state. The present MLAs and other male aspirants for these seats would be the losers.

He felt that it would be better if the state was taken as one unit to decide on women's reservations.