Women Candidates Still Few and Far Between in Telangana

This year’s Lok Sabha election could well be the one before political parties will have to give up their the traditional mostly men-only model and give more women their party tickets, a minimum of 33 per cent of their total candidates once the women’s reservation in elected bodies, including the Lok Sabha kicks in, in time for the elections that will come after the ones this year. In Telangana, if one goes by the current number of 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state, each of the major parties would be required to nominate at least five women candidates each.

But with the last opportunity to have it their way, no party has voluntarily created the space for women candidates, something they will have to do whether they like it or not, in the future.

For this Lok Sabha elections, the Congress has led the way doing better than the BJP and the BRS by fielding three women candidates — Dr Kadiam Kavya (Warangal SC), Sunitha Mahender Reddy (Malkajgiri), and Athram Suguna (Adilabad ST).

The BJP has fielded two — D.K. Aruna (Mahbubnagar), and K. Madhavi Latha (Hyderabad). The BRS, which could have had two candidates but lost its Warangal nominee Dr Kadiam Kavya to the Congress, has been left with just one woman in the fray, Maloth Kavitha from the Mahbubabad ST constituency.

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen has fielded just one candidate, its president Asaduddin Owaisi from Hyderabad, who incidentally, is being challenged by Madhavi Latha, one of the BJP’s two women candidates in the state.

Incidentally, women voters outnumber their male counterparts in Telangana by a margin of 1,76,368, as per the official voter numbers. The state has 1,64,08,319 male and 1,65,84,687 female voters.