As parties neatly hem their candidate lists for the elections in Karnataka, they all seem to have missed one constituency: women voters.According to the Election Commission, the number of women voters has increased to 2.44 cr now, or about 49% of Karnataka’s 4.96 cr voters. Comparatively, there were 2.13 cr women voters in 2013 and 2.26 cr women voters during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.Of Karnataka’s 30 districts, five – Raichur, Udupi, Ramanagara, Dakshin Kannada and Kodagu – have more women voters than men.Women in Karnataka Politics This time, the ruling Congress has fielded 16 women among its 229 candidates (less than 7%) declared so far and the BJP six. The Janata Dal (S) has four women among its 126 candidates.The figures are abysmal, “given the numbers of women voters are very high and we have being raking up issues related to women’s security,” according to Bharati Shetty, who heads the women’s wing in the BJP. “We had aimed for 150 names.”While the Congress appears to have done better than the other parties, a closer look at the list reveals the selection of women candidates is a ‘customary’ gesture.
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Two are the widows of MLAs Qamarul Islam and Mahadev Prasad and one is the daughter of Rudresh Gowda, an MLA who died in March. The party has given tickets to the children of at least four lawmakers – they include CM Siddaramaiah’s son, Jayanagar candidate Sowmya Reddy who is MLA Ramalinga Reddy’s daughter, and Roopa Shashidhar from Kolar Gold Fields, daughter of Kolar MP KH Muniyappa. The party’s women minister Umashree has been retained from Tardal. Mahila Wing head Lakshmi Ravindra Hebbalkar from Belgaum Rural is the other prominent face.The BJP is expected to field Udupi-Chikmagalur MP Shobha Karandlaje from Yashwanthpur in Bengaluru. The party’s other notable candidate is S Ashwani from Kolar Gold Fields as a replacement for father Y Sampangi, who faces corruption charges.
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IndependentsMost women contesting in Karnataka’s male-dominated politics have done so as independent candidates.In 2013, there were 175 women among the 2,945 candidates, or about 6% of the total. The Congress had given tickets to eight women, the BJP seven and the JD S 12. Sixty-seven of the women were independents and only six were elected – most lost their security deposits.As per EC records, while the number of women contesting has increased to 175 in 2013 from 24 in 1957, the number of women winners has declined from a peak of 18 in 1962.Pre-poll sopsStill, parties do keep in mind that women voters are an important constituency, if one goes by the items seized by flying squads keeping vigil for poll code violations.As per EC data, sarees and gold ornaments (from Bengaluru, Belagavi and Bagalakot) continue to be the favourites. Also confiscated were two truckloads of household items worth over Rs 8 cr from Mysuru earlier this month and a lorry carrying cookers and irons worth Rs 1.5 crore from Belagavi in March.