Out of the 15 Prime Ministers India has elected, 9 have been from the state of Uttar Pradesh. With 80 seats in the Lok Sabha, UP has the largest representational share in the nation’s policymaking.
It is but a redundant understatement to emphasise that’s Uttar Pradesh’s leadership shapes the course the nation takes. Then it becomes even more crucial to ask why the sixty-four million six hundred thirteen thousand seven hundred and forty-seven women strong electorate has only a meagre 10% representation in the state’s assembly.
One half of the UP electorate has been disproportionately absent from participating in the governance process. In 1952, the first state polls after Independence, Uttar Pradesh elected 20 women to the state legislation. Pleasantly surprising everyone, it then elected the country’s first female Chief Minister Sucheta Kripalani in 1963.
However, then the report card turns red and performance dwindles. From a paltry 3 legislators in 2007, the state saw the highest representation only a decade later in 2017 with 40 women in the 403 member House. The first double-digit share - 10%. Meanwhile, the overrepresentation of men ranges between 90-99% even though the male electorate accounts for only 53-55%.
To be proportional, there should be over 180 women in the House.
So when on October 19th Priyanka Gandhi Vadra promised that Congress will field 40% or 160 female candidates in the 2022 state polls, eyebrows were raised.
Critics argued that the move is a political gimmick and Congress is not even a major player in the state to cast a dent with its campaign gambit and if Priyanka was focused on women empowerment, congress would start applying the 40% policy in states where they have a majority.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati deemed the move ‘pure election drama’. Point to note, according to an Indian Express report, in the 2017 state polls the former Chief Minister’s party fielded 21 women. And 382 men.
So, is Priyanka’s move political? Sure. It is also laudable, because it is a first.
It is a shift from the campaign politics focused on the caste matrix and religious polarisation that has so far appealed to the male-dominated ballot in the state and led to a male-dominated assembly.
It can also work as a pressure tactic, forcing other political parties to amp up their female candidates to outweigh the so-called-gimmick.
It is also not a far-fetched idealistic move that is impossible, or more importantly, winnable.
Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress has been at the forefront of this electoral crusade. In 2014, TMC fielded 35% female candidates and then followed it up with 41% in 2019. The move pressure the Opposition Left and BJP to field more women. TMC won both polls.
In 2020 Bihar election Nitish’s Janata Dal (United) fielded a historic 19% women candidates and defeated the anti-incumbency to retain his Chief Ministerial seat.
The argument that women are not winnable candidates in a patriarchal society has been proved wrong. Numbers suggest that the winning rate is either comparable for the sexes or favourable towards women.
Clearly, it pays to put women in politics. Statistically, it also pays to listen to the women who are voting.
Rise of the female voting bloc
There has been a dramatic rise in female voter participation since the 1990s.
To the extent, that in the 2017 UP assembly election, more women voted than men.
63.25% to 59.5%
Studies suggest that women vote differently than men. Interestingly, the gender of the candidate does not sway this bloc. Simply put, women are not more likely to vote for female candidates. While men are more likely to be swayed by promises of infrastructural agendas, the female voting bloc is wooed by welfare schemes.
Most leading parties have taken cognisance of this voter base that can make or break elections. Political campaigns and manifestos are now tailored to appeal to the needs of the women.
Hence, Priyanka’s 40% reservation promise.
But will it work in UP? It worked for the winner of the 2017 polls. BJP and ally Apna Dal had the highest female representation- they gave 43 tickets to women in their 384 strong candidates list, out of which 35 women won.
In 1996, the Dewe Gowda government introduced a constitutional amendment bill in the Parliament, that sought to reserve one-third of seats for women in the the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies.
Twenty-five years later, the Women’s Reservation Bill is yet to be an attainable bipartisan goal.
So, equal representation to women in politics through a constitutional recourse still looks distant.
In such a scenario, it's for the political parties to take the lead and make sure that women are not missing from UP governance and politics.
