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Parveen Arora
Tribune News Service
Karnal, October 13
The Congress and INLD have taken a lead over the ruling BJP in fielding women candidates from the district, represented by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar in the Assembly.
Both Congress and INLD have fielded one woman candidate each from Indri and Nilokheri, respectively, while the BJP has not given ticket to any woman from the five seats. However, the Rashtriya Janta Party has given ticket to a woman candidate from Nilokheri.
After the scrutiny of nominations and withdrawal of names, four women candidates are in the fray from all five constituencies. Congress has fielded Navjot Kaur from Indri seat, while INLD has shown trust on Sonika Gill from Nilokheri seat. Aruna from Rashtriya Janta Party and Yogita as independent candidates are in the fray from Nilokheri seat.
History reveals that the district has given several women MLAs to Haryana Assembly and all have made their mark. From Karnal, Shanti Devi and Sumita Singh have been elected to the Haryana Legislative Assembly so far, while from Indri, Parsani Devi and Janki Mann were elected. Similarly, Rekha Rana was elected from Gharaunda, and Raj Rani Poonam was elected from Assandh. Erstwhile Jundla constituency had elected Meena Mandal as MLA so far.
Experts consider that all political parties emphasise on 33 per cent reservation for women, but they give lesser share to them while distributing tickets. “Society is still conservative and suffering from ‘son-stroke’ even in politics. Political parties should give an opportunity to women equally like men, as they have the ability to win. The man-dominated society should shun the trend of promoting men and boost the confidence of women by giving them an opportunity,” said Dr Ram Ji Lal, a political analyst.
He said due to such reasons registration of women as voters and participation in voting remained less.
Jagmohan Anand, district president of the BJP, said they had plenty of women ticket aspirants from all five seats, but the tickets have been distributed by the party leadership on different criteria and the circumstances of the constituencies. “We have given opportunities to women in other constituencies of the state,” he said.