Congress, it seems, is not practicing what it is preaching. Congress national president Rahul Gandhi is promising reservation of 33 percent of seats in the Parliament and state legislatures for the ‘fair sex’, but the party in Punjab may be fair only to Preneet Kaur.
Perhaps, she would be the only female leader to get the party ticket to contest May 19 Lok Sabha elections in Punjab, out of the total 13 seats. Available information suggests that CM’s wife Preneet Kaur, is the only female party leader who has been shortlisted to get a ticket. However, the party high command is yet to announce the names of the candidates.
It has been learnt that less than 10 female party leaders have applied for the party ticket out of the total 184 applications received by the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) for 13 seats.
A wave of resentment is brewing within the party’s women wing which is mulling over approaching the authorities concerned to remind their promise of 33 percent reservation to the women.
Ignoring the ‘one family, one post’ rule, the Congress has almost finalised the name of four-time MP Preneet Kaur from Patiala.
Even as the former Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal had applied for ticket from Sangrur, and the former MP Santosh Chaudhary and her daughter Namita Chaudhary had sought ticket from Hoshiarpur, the party reportedly did not consider them as “winnable” candidates.
At the same time, former Union Minister Ambika Soni is said to have shown reluctance to contest the elections, and is pushing the name of her son Anoop Soni from Sri Anandpur Sahib. Congress’ Dhuri MLA Dalvir Singh Goldy has reportedly sought the party ticket for his wife, Simrat Kaur Khangura.
“It is not like we do not have strong female leaders. Bhattal ji and Santosh Chaudhary ji could be the strong candidates. There is Ambika Soni ji who has a stronghold in Anandpur Sahib. The party should take these leaders in view before deciding the names,” said a member of party’s women wing, requesting anonymity.
Notably, the Congress-led Punjab Government had already passed Bills increasing reservation for women to 50 percent from the existing 33 in all civic bodies, including Panchayat Raj Institutions, urban local bodies, municipal councils, corporations, et al, within three months of coming to power in the state.
In June 2017, the Punjab Vidhan Sabha enhanced reservation of women in civic bodies giving them increased chances of being directly elected as members of gram panchayats, zila parishads, and other similar bodies. As per the amendment, women reservation has been increased in direct elections for members of gram panchayats, panchayat samitis, and zila parishads, besides municipal corporations, municipal councils and nagar panchayats. As many as 50 wards from municipal corporations, nagar panchayats, and municipal councils will also be reserved for women.
In fact, in December last year, Punjab VS had “unanimously” passed a resolution to urge the Centre to enact the Women's Reservation Bill to provide 33 percent reservation for women in both the Parliament and all the states’ Legislative Assemblies.
