In Maharashtra, there has been a political upheaval going on. Now, with Lok Sabha Elections 2024 going on, political parties are campaigning throughout the state and are trying to woo voters. This time it is Mahayuti VS Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
Mahayuti is an alliance of three parties - Shiv Sena (Shinde Faction), NCP (Ajit Pawar Faction), and BJP - which is the ruling government in Maharashtra, while the MVA is an alliance of Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (Sharad Pawar), and Congress.
It is interesting to note that 16 of Maharashtra’s 48 Lok Sabha constituencies are witnessing electoral battles involving women candidates.
In the 2024 elections, the Mahayuti is fielding 10 women candidates, and the Maha Vikas Aghadi is fielding six women candidates.
Even if women's participation has slightly increased, equal representation is still a long way off.
Women have reservations in municipal bodies; however, despite this issue being discussed for at least 20 years, there is no reservation for women in the nation's highest house.
The BJP, which will be contesting for 28 seats in the state, has given tickets to six women. The party has fielded four female candidates from North Maharashtra, indicating that the region is the source of the party's woman power. Shiv Sena (Shinde faction), which will contest from 15 seats, gave two tickets to female candidates. Two female candidates, Sunetra Pawar from Baramati and Archana Patil from Osmanabad, were given tickets by the NCP (Ajit Pawar) faction, which is running for four seats.
Shiv Sena UBT, which is contesting for 21 seats, declared women candidates for the Palghar and Kalyan seats. Congress is contesting for 17 seats and has fielded four female candidates. Rashmi Barve, the first choice of Congress for the Ramtek seat, was unable to contest due to a problem with her caste certificate. Sule's candidature from Baramati was announced by the NCP (SP) party, which led to the intriguing confrontation between Sharad Pawar's daughter and daughter-in-law.
Eleven women, mainly from political families, contested Maharashtra's general election of 2019. Eight female candidates then became MPs. Supriya Sule of the NCP won from Baramati, Bhavana Gawali of the Shiv Sena from Yavatmal-Washim, Pritam Munde of the BJP from Beed, Raksha Khadse from Raver, Heena Gavit from Nandurbar, Poonam Mahajan from Mumbai North Central, and Bharati Pawar from Dindori. Independent candidate Navneet Rana from Amravati, who joined hands with BJP ahead of LS polls 2024. Priya Dutt of the Congress (Mumbai North Central) lost to Poonam Mahajan, and Supriya Sule defeated Kanchan Kul of the BJP. Urmila Matondkar, a Mumbai North Congress candidate, was ousted by a significant margin by the BJP's Gopal Shetty.
Share
Tweet
