Only 9.83 pc candidates are women in NE states

Itanagar/Agartala : Like previous Parliamentary elections, there are very few women candidates contesting in the 18th Lok Sabha elections in the six north eastern states, where filing of nominations were completed.

According to the Election Commission data, only six women (9.83 per cent) out of 61 candidates are contesting on 10 seats in six states -- Arunachal Pradesh (2), Manipur (2), Meghalaya (2), Tripura (2), Mizoram (1) and Nagaland (1).

This time two women each contesting in Meghalaya and Tripura while one each in Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram.

Like 2019, there is no woman candidate in Manipur and Nagaland.

In a historic development in April 2022, 45-year-old S. Phangnon Konyak belonging to the BJP became the first woman Rajya Sabha member from Nagaland.

Matrilineal society exists in Meghalaya, where the youngest daughter of the family inherits all ancestral property. After marriage, husbands go to live in their wives’ homes. If the situation arises, the wife may live independently or with her mother.

Children take their mother’s clan surname.

In the 17th Lok Sabha polls in 2019, out of the total of 67 candidates in six of the eight northeastern states, six candidates fought the elections with only one in Tripura -- Pratima Bhowmik (BJP) -- won her Tripura West Lok Sabha seat.

Once again this poor representation of women in the Parliamentary elections frustrated the women leaders and activists despite 27 years after the Women’s Reservation Bill was passed in Parliament in September last year to amend the Constitution and provide one-third reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies.

Women are always in the leading position in the northeastern states in various sectors, including societal issues, anti-drug movements and farming. Like previous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, women voters have once again outnumbered men voters in the electoral rolls in four northeastern states – Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma, who is also the National President of the National People’s Party (NPP), has been on a hectic campaign trail across the state to stimulate support for sitting Tura MP and his sister, Agatha Sangma, and his cabinet colleague Ampareen Lyngdoh for the Shillong Lok Sabha seat.

Lok Sabha member from the prestigious Shillong seat, Vincent H. Pala of the Congress has been campaigning hard to retain his Lok Sabha seat for the fourth consecutive term.

Though the BJP is supporting Congress-turned-NPP leader Lyngdoh, the Shillong seat has been with the Congress for 30 years. Lone candidate in the Parliamentary polls Toko Sheetal, representing the Gana Suraksha Party, is contesting from Arunachal West seat.

The BJP, which has fielded candidates in all the 60 Assembly constituencies, has just given four seats to women leaders, while the Congress, which has fielded 19 candidates, have given three seats to women.

The NPP, which has the second highest number of candidates with 20, has scored a zero, and so has the People’s Party of Arunachal, the Arunachal Democratic Party, and the Lok Janshakti Party – the other political parties in the election.

Polling would be held in the first phase of elections on Friday in 15 (including partly in outer Manipur) of the 25 seats in eight northeastern states.