Only 22 women contested the Assembly by-elections in Madhya Pradesh in the recently held polls, but only one could reach the House.
As the high voltage bypolls have concluded in Madhya Pradesh it emerged that among 28 assembly constituencies, only a single MLA, Sumitra Devi Kasdekar, won the poll from Nepanagar in Burhanpur.
A former MLA of Congress party, Kasdekar had resigned from the party and joined Bharatiya Janata Party soon after.
There were 355 candidates in the fray in bypolls and only 22 (6%) were females.
When it came to fielding women in the bypolls, parties hardly have reposed faith on their women leaders as among all the candidates, even national parties. Mainstream political parties BJP and Congress, the former has fielded Imati Devi from Dabra and Sumitra Devi Kasdekar from Nepanagar, both Congress rebels.
Congress party had fielded Parul Sahu, a BJP turncoat from Surkhi in Sagar district who lost to Govind Singh Rajput, also a turncoat who had resigned from Congress party in March this year.
Besides, talked about BJP candidate Imarti Devi Suman, a Congress rebel, had lost narrowly to Suresh Raje, also a former BJP man who had joined Congress party in Dabra at the behest of Devi herself.
Besides, the fourth one, Ramsiya Bharti, a kathavachak (religious narrator) by profession in Malhera in Chhatarpur lost to former partyman Paradyumn Singh Lodhi.
However, Bharti junior lost even as Bharti senior (Uma Bharti) threw her weight behind her old disciple—Pradyumn Singh Lodhi, who had left BJP to join Congress ahead of 2018 assembly polls and early this year left Congress party to return to the party fold after Kamal Nath lost power.
Neha Bagga, the spokesperson told that bypoll scenario was different as the BJP had names pre-declared. But the party had more female candidates in 2018 assembly polls than fielded by Congress party. “Our party also takes lead in appointing women as Chief Ministers and at key posts nationally including in union cabinet,” she added.
Congress party senior leader Vibha Patel too accepted that there were some constraints in bypolls but Congress believes in offering women chances in politics. “It was late PM Rajiv Gandhi who had brought reservation for women and people used to ask from where all these women will come from,” added Patel.