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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Women card on CPM table by Biswajit Roy

Women card on CPM table by Biswajit Roy

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published Published on Jan 12, 2011   modified Modified on Jan 12, 2011

The CPM is planning to field a large number of women candidates in the forthcoming Assembly polls in Bengal in an attempt to fight anti-incumbency and stem the steady slide over the past few years.

“We have asked all the Left Front constituents to ensure nomination of women candidates in a large number,’’ CPM Bengal secretary and Left Front chairman Biman Bose said after a coalition meeting this morning.

Indicating that the process of candidate selection is fraught with many hitches, including the demand for more seats from allies and the need for reallocating seats following delimitation of constituencies, Bose said the candidates’ list would not be declared at the front election rally on February 13 as was the custom earlier.

Women leaders of the front greeted Bose’s stress on more representation with cautious optimism. “Our party has already decided about selection of more women candidates this time. We may not be able to ensure 33 per cent representation but will try our best to make the number as large as possible,’’ said Shyamali Gupta, the lone woman member in the CPM state secretariat.

The outgoing Assembly has 37 women MLAs with 29 from the ruling side. Among the Left parties, the CPM has 26, the Forward Bloc has two and the RSP one.

Among the Opposition’s women members, three each from the Trinamul Congress and the Congress had won in the 2006 polls but the strength has gone down because of death, elevation to Parliament as well as disqualification from the House. The Jharkhand Party and the GNLF have a woman member each.

The Left Front had fielded 138 women candidates last time, which amounted to 8.34 per cent of the total 1,654 candidates in 294 seats. In contrast, it put up only two women among 42 candidates in the Lok Sabha polls in 2009.

As the CPM leadership has been trying to weed out “corrupt and arrogant” representatives, women are being considered potential redeemers. “Women have proved their administrative and political abilities in the three-tier panchayats and municipalities. Although there are examples of Mayavatis and Jayalalithaas, women are generally less prone to corruption,’’ Gupta said.

However, a Calcutta CPM leader pointed out that although the Left had put up 92 new candidates, including 67 women, in the Calcutta civic poll, it could not stop the Trinamul’s sweep.

“It’s not that women candidates will ensure our victory if the people really want change. It has already been proved in the civic polls. Nevertheless, I will thank the front leadership that they have thought of giving women what they deserve since long,” RSP women’s wing leader Sarbani Bhattacharya said.

The Left supported the demand for 33 per cent seat reservation for women in Parliament and Assemblies and recently passed a law in Bengal, making provision for 50 per cent seat reservation for women in panchayats.

On the mismatch between the leadership’s professed idealism and marginal role for women in their respective parties, she said: “We are aware of the anomaly and try to ensure a larger role for women in our party committees in post-poll organisational meetings.’’


The Telegraph, 13 January, 2011, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110113/jsp/nation/story_13432583.jsp


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