74 women candidates in fray in Assam Assembly elections

    Guwahati, Apr 3 (PTI) Political parties have made
promises galore to woo the 49.35 per cent strong women
electorate but only 74 women candidates are in the fray for
the three-phase Assam Assembly elections in 2021.
    The number of women candidates in this year's Assembly
election is less compared to the last two state assembly
polls.
    In the 2016 Assam Assembly election, there were 91
women candidates in the fray with eight of them winning while
in 2011, 85 women contested and 14 made it to the assembly,
the highest so far elected to the House.
    The 74 candidates comprise a mere 7.82 per cent of
the total 946 candidates in the fray for the 126 member
Assembly.
    Notwithstanding their poor representation, women came
out in large numbers, outnumbering men in the first phase with
76.07 per cent of the total 40,32,481 female electorate
exercising their franchise while 75.79 per cent of the
40,77,210 male voters and 11.29 per cent of the 124 third
gender cast their vote.
    In the second phase, women were a mere .06 per cent
behind men voters with 80.94 of the 36,09,959 women electorate
exercising their franchise as against 81 per cent of the total
37,34,537 male electorate and 5.9 per cent of the 135 third
gender voters.
    The Congress, a part of the Grand Alliance, has put up
nine women candidates with its allies the AIUDF, Rashtriya
Janata Dal and Bodoland Peoples' Front (BPF) giving tickets to
one women candidate each.
    The Grand Alliance's total of 12 women candidates in
this assembly poll is lower than the 16 women given tickets by
the Congress in 2016 Assembly election.
    The BJP has given tickets to seven women candidates,
one more than the last polls, while its alliance partner, the
Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) has put up two aspirants, the same as
in the last elections.
    The newly floated Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) has
given tickets to seven women candidates while the other new
party Raijor Dal has put one women candidate. The AJP and
Raijor Dal candidates are contesting as independents.
    Among the nine candidates of the Congress, there are
three new faces, two sitting MLAs, two former ministers along
with two others who had contested and lost the last polls.
    The Congress new faces are Ashima Bardoloi, the
grand-daughter of Assam's first Chief Minister Bharat Ratna
Gopinath Bordoloi, contesting from Gauhati (East), Mira
Barthakur Goswami from Gauhati (West) and Sibamoni Bora from
Batadroba.
    The sitting MLAs who have been renominated are Nandita
Das (Boko) and Roselina Tirkey (Sarupathar) while two former
ministers Pranati Phukan (Naharkatiya) and Bismita Gogoi along
with Angkita Dutta (Amguri) and Pallabi Gogoi (Teok), who lost
the 2016 polls, have been given tickets again by the party.
    The BJP also has four new faces - Surabhi Rajkonwar
(Sivasagar), Nandita Garlosa (Haflong), Moon Swarnakar
(Algapur) and Hasinara Khatun (Baghbor)- in the fray. The
saffron party has renominated two sitting MLAs, Angoorlata
Deka (Batadroba) and Suman Haripriya (Hajo) while former
Congress minister and sitting MLA Ajanta Neog (Golaghat), who
joined BJP before the elections, was given the ticket from the
same constituency.
    Among the lesser known political parties, the SUCI (C)
has the highest of eight women candidates, followed by three
of the Voters International Party (VPI) and two of the
Bharatiya Gana Parishad (BJP) and 24 independents are in the
fray.
    There are three women each contesting in the six
constituencies of Batadroba, Algapur, Sipajhar, Gauhati
(East), Gauhati (West) and Sarukhetri.
    There are two women candidates in each of the 11
constituencies of Teok, Golaghat, Sadiya, Lahorighat,
Barhmapur, Silchar, Jamunamukh, Panery, Raha, Dispur and
Palasbari. PTI DG
RG RG

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)