On 10th March, Congress’s Kerala state chief K Sudhakaran called Congress National Spokesperson Shama Mohamed a “nobody” in the party. His comments against Shama came when reporters asked him for comments on her statement expressing disappointment over insufficient women’s representation in the first list of Lok Sabha candidates in Kerala issued by the Congress party. Reacting to the report’s question, Sudhakaran said, “Go and ask her. She is nobody in the party”.
Shama Mohammed expressed disappointment over the candidate list for the General Elections
On 9th March, Congress National Spokesperson Shama Mohamed expressed disappointment over the insufficient representation of women in the Lok Sabha candidate lineup for Kerala. Speaking to the media after Congress issued its first list of candidates, Shama said, “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.”
Notably, Congress issued the first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections out of which 16 were from Kerala. Interestingly, only one woman, Ramya Haridas for the Alathur constituency in Palakkad district, made the list. In the last Lok Sabha elections, there were two women candidates for Congress.
On Saturday, Congress National Spokesperson Shama Mohamed expressed disappointment that the Congress party, which was the first to introduce the Women’s Reservation Bill, fielded only one woman candidate from Kerala for the upcoming LS polls even after the legislation was recently passed in Parliament (but not been made operational yet).
Furthermore, the daughter of Congress leader and former Kerala CM K Karunakaran, Padmaja Venugopal, alleged neglect by the Congress party. Though Shama said she was not making a complaint and only requesting the party leadership to give more representation to women, it is evident that Congress has failed to do what it has attacked Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) repeatedly.
Shama said that the women’s votes have been going to the other parties and if women candidates were chosen, the grand old party could get them back. Shama added that Congress leader and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi has called for more women representation in the politics. In February, during a Mahila Congress programme that was held in Kochi, Gandhi had said that within 10 years 50 per cent of the Chief Ministers in the country should be women.
“Women should be given strength. They should be given representation. They should be given seats they can win from as women need to come forward. There are competent women also in the party. They should be brought forward,” she said.
BJP fielded three women candidates in Kerala
Interestingly, while Congress fielded only one woman candidate from Kerala, BJP fielded three women candidates out of a total of 12 candidates and LDF fielded two out of a total of 20 candidates.
Congress’s MP IT Cell vice president targetted BJP for women candidate percentage in the first list
On 7th March, days before Congress released the first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, Madhya Pradesh Congress’s vice president of IT Cell targeted the BJP for giving only four tickets to women candidates in Madhya Pradesh out of 24. He called out the BJP for saying in Lok Sabha that the Women Reservation Act would come into force in 2029.
Notably, when the Women’s Reservation Act was passed in the parliament, the BJP-led central government clearly said that it would take some time to bring the Act into force. At that time Congress and other opposition parties targeted BJP by saying that the Reservation Act was only for show-off. Congress leaders challenged BJP leadership to give tickets to 33% of women candidates for Lok Sabha elections. However, it appears that Congress would itself fail to give 33% of tickets to women candidates for the upcoming General Elections.