Only 87 women elected in Har since 1966, no woman CM yet

Gurugram/Rewari : It is still a man’s world in the Haryana Assembly polls, with only 51 women candidates -- most of them either having the backing of a political family or celebrity status -- being fielded by frontline political parties. Since it was carved out from Punjab in 1966, the state, known for its skewed gender ratio, has sent only 87 women to the assembly. Haryana has never had a woman chief minister. An analysis of candidates’ lists shows that the main opposition Congress has fielded 12 women candidates, the highest among the parties in these elections. The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), contesting the elections in an alliance, have fielded 11 women candidates combined while the ruling BJP has named 10 women nominees.

The alliance of the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) and the Azad Samaj Party (ASP) has named eight women candidates in the 85 seats it is contesting while AAP’s list of 90 hopefuls has 10 women. According to Haryana Vidhan Sabha records, in the five assembly elections beginning in 2000, a total of 47 women have become legislators in the state, notorious for its skewed gender ratio -- 916 female births per 1,000 males in 2023. In the 2019 elections, 104 women candidates, including those contesting as Independents, were in the fray. The 2014 elections witnessed the highest number of women candidates -- 13 out of 116 -- winning from their seats.

That number fell to nine in the 2019 elections. Elections for the 90-member Haryana Assembly will be held on October 5 and the results declared on October 8. In the fray this time is Union minister Rao Inderjit Singh’s daughter Arti Singh Rao, who is contesting her debut election from Ateli on a BJP ticket. Former chief minister Bansi Lal’s granddaughter Shruti Chaudhary, who joined the BJP from the Congress earlier this year, is in the fray in Tosham. Four-time Congress MLA and former state education minister Geeta Bhukkal told PTI that the Congress had fielded the maximum number of women candidates compared to the other parties.

“A Bill granting 33 per cent reservation to women in Parliament and state assemblies was passed but it will be implemented in 2029, which is also a joke with women,” she said. Bhukkal is contesting from Jhajjar. Throwing her hat in the ring for the Congress in Julana in Jind district is Vinesh Phogat -- a wrestling icon who became the face of an anti-sexual harassment protest and retired from the sport after a shock end to her campaign for gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

She is pitted against AAP’s Kavita Dalal, the first Indian woman wrestler to compete in the WWE. The most prominent woman contesting the polls is Savitri Jindal, Asia’s richest woman and chairperson of the OP Jindal Group. While she was hopeful of getting a ticket from the BJP, the 74-year-old entered the fray as an Independent and is contesting against Haryana minister and incumbent Hisar MLA Kamal Gupta. Chitra Sarwara, the daughter of former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s confidant Nirmal Singh, has entered the fray as an Independent from the Ambala Cantonment seat after being denied a ticket by the Congress.

Sarwara also contested the 2019 polls as an Independent after the Congress denied her a ticket and stood second with more than 44,000 votes. This time, she is pitted against the BJP’s Anil Vij -- a six-time MLA and former home minister -- and Parvinder Singh Pari of the Congress. AAP’s Rabia Kidwai is the first woman candidate from Nuh, a Muslim-dominated constituency. Kidwai also has significant political lineage as the granddaughter of Akhlaq-Ur-Rehman Kidwai, the 13th governor of Haryana. Joining the fray in Badshahpur, the largest constituency in Haryana, is Kumudni Rakesh Daultabad as an Independent. Her husband Rakesh Daultabad was MLA from the seat after winning the polls in 2019 as an Independent.

He died earlier this year following a heart attack. According to a study by Ashoka University’s Triveni Centre for Political Data (TCPD), women’s representation in Haryana had always been a cause for concern, given the state’s history of bias and crimes against women, and poor performance in gender-related metrics.

“The rising number of women candidates in the Vidhan Sabha elections over the years and their ability to outvote men comfortably from 2000 up to 2019 in the state elections comes as a plus for women in politics in Haryana. However, amongst the elected women MLAs in the said period, many hailed from affluent political families, leaving circumstances relatively unchanged,” it said.

“Even though such practices of political dynasticism provide opportunities to women to contest, represent and forward the interests of their constituents, it leads to concentration of power with the already resourceful political families,” the TCPD study added. A professor of political science at the Central University of Haryana in Mahendergarh said the state’s politics was still rooted in patriarchy.

“Tickets are allotted to women hailing from big political families only. It could be observed that it is also difficult for women to secure a victory when contesting independently or without strong political backing,” she said. “The same could be understood from the fact that there has been only one woman Independent candidate, Shakuntla Bhagwaria, since 2000 until now to have won elections independently, in 2005,” she added.