Kannur: AICC national spokesperson Shama Mohamed on Saturday came out against the Congress leadership in the state regarding women's representation in the candidates list for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. She expressed her disappointment that despite introducing the Women's Reservation Bill, the Congress only fielded one woman candidate in the state even after the passing of the legislation.
"Women comprise 51 per cent of the population in Kerala. The leaders should have given women their due importance while finalising the candidates," said Shama. She further said the party should consider women in seats where the probability of victory is high. "Ramya Haridas got a ticket only because Alathur is a reservation seat. Otherwise, she too would have been dropped," said Shama.
She pointed out that Congress leader and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi has been calling for more women representation in politics and therefore, her "request" is that party leaders in Kerala should listen to him. "You should give representation to women. Last time (in 2019), there were two women candidates (from Kerala). But after the passing of the Women's Reservation Bill, there is only one this time. That is my greatest disappointment," she said.
Her statement comes a day after the Congress announced its 16 candidates from Kerala for the upcoming LS polls with Ramya Haridas, for the Alathur constituency in Palakkad district, the only woman on the list.
Shama's remarks also assume importance as Padmaja Venugopal, daughter of Congress stalwart and former Kerala Chief Minister K Karunakaran, moved to the BJP alleging neglect from the grand old party.
The AICC national spokesperson said that she was not making a complaint, but was only requesting the party to give women more representation. She claimed that women's votes were going to other parties and that to get them back, the party needed to have more women candidates.
Shama said that in the last Mahila Congress programme held in Kochi, Rahul Gandhi had said that within 10 years, 50 per cent of the chief ministers in the country should be women.
The BJP in its initial list of 12 candidates from Kerala has three women candidates and the LDF in its complete list of 20 nominees, has two women.
Besides representation for women, she said that minorities should also be represented from the Malabar region and merely saying there is already another party here for them is not enough.
(With PTI inputs)
