All political parties have been enthusiastically promoting women's empowerment, but when it comes to fielding women candidates in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, they all seem to have developed cold feet, from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to the Congress, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the State.

Out of 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana, all the four major political parties- BJP, Congress, INLD and JJP have fielded just one woman candidate each, suggesting that despite the passage of the women’s reservation law last September, political parties are yet to actively work toward boosting female representation in the Lok Sabha, going by their lineup for the ongoing elections.

BJP has announced candidates for 10 Lok Sabha seats, of whom only one is a woman. Similarly, the Congress list announced recently has one woman out of nine Lok Sabha candidates.  While both major parties, the BJP and the Congress, have listed women-centric initiatives in their manifestos, the translation of these commitments into substantial numbers of women contesting elections remains a challenge.
INLD and JJP have also announced only one woman candidate each. All these fielded women candidates are related to families with deeply entrenched political connections.

As per the released list of candidates by the major political parties, BJP has fielded Banto Devi, wife of former MP and former Union Minister Ratan Lal Kataria from the Ambala Lok Sabha reserved seat. Congress party has fielded former MP and former Union Minister Kumari Selja from Sirsa Constituency. Her father Chaudhary Dalbir Singh was a former Member of Parliament from Sirsa Constituency. He also served as a cabinet minister.

The INLD has fielded its women wing leader Sunaina Chautala from Hisar. INLD Women Wing general secretary Sunaina is the wife of Abhay Chautala’s cousin Ravi Chautala. Ravi is the son of INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala’s younger brother late Partap Singh Chautala. From Hisar, the JJP has fielded Naina Chautala, who is currently the MLA from Badhra in Charkhi Dadri district. Naina is the mother of former Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala and wife of JJP president Ajay Singh Chautala.  

As per the political history of the State, in its 58-year since 1966, Haryana has elected only six women to the Lok Sabha. To count them on fingers, they are Chandrawati (Bhiwani), Sudha Yadav (erstwhile Mahendergarh seat), Shruti Chaudhary (Bhiwani-Mahendragarh), Kailasho Saini (Kurukshetra), Kumari Selja (Sirsa and Ambala) and Sunita Duggal (current Sirsa MP).

Selja has been MP four times and Kailasho Saini twice. Selja was also in the Rajya Sabha from 2014 to 2020. The state was still able to produce women leaders of national stature such as late former central minister Sushma Swaraj, Chandrawati, and Sudha Yadav. Chandrawati was state’s first woman MP in 1977, who also served as MLA.

Of the state’s 1.99 crore Lok Sabha electors, nearly 93 lakh are women. The state Government kept 50% quota for them in the PRIs through the Haryana Panchayati Raj (Second Amendment) Act, 2020. In the first PRI polls of November 2022 under the new reservation policy, 2,500-odd women were elected as sarpanch and 22,000-odd as village panch.

It is understood that all major political parties had supported the women’s reservation bill in Parliament but it seems the same has not been reflected during the selection of candidates in Haryana. The percentage of women fielded by the four major parties of the state in their lists for Lok Sabha announced so far is quite low. The low representation of women candidates has raised questions about the reluctance of political parties to proactively promote gender diversity in their candidate selection processes.

Observers opine that the women from Haryana have a good presence in almost every field except politics. All parties want them as ground workers and rally crowds, but not as leaders, because men are decision-makers in the parties and homes. After 33% reservation for women in politics, they should change their mind. The political parties should take concrete steps to promote women's candidacy. Political parties should have been more proactive and fielded more women candidates.
 
They further said that more women candidates have a positive impact. They will not only represent the issues of nearly 50% of the voters but also there will be fewer politicians with questionable backgrounds or criminal cases.