LS polls: Few women in fray in Bihar

Bihar's upcoming parliamentary elections lack female representation. Out of 80 key candidates, only a few are women. Parties field mostly male candidates.

When the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, the Constitution’s (128th Amendment) Bill, 2023, was introduced in the Lok Sabha in September last year, there was high hope among women for a better representation in electoral politics.

Ritu Jaiswal, who hit the headlines as mukhiya of Raj Singhwahini panchayat in Sonbarsa block of Sitamarhi district, is tipped to be the RJD candidate from Sitamarhi Lok Sabha seat. (HT file)

Their hope, it seems, was misplaced, at least in Bihar.

For the 40 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state, at least 80 key candidates will be in the fray from the two rival political alliances in the upcoming parliamentary elections in the country, but not even a dozen of them are women.

The BJP has not fielded any woman candidate from the 17 Lok Sabha seats it’s contesting in the state.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), which is contesting from 16 seats in the state, has only two women candidates — Lovely Anand and Vijay Lakshmi Kushwaha — both of whom joined the party only recently.

Lovely Anand, a former MP, is the wife of Anand Mohan, who was released prematurely from jail last year after partly serving his sentence for the killing of an IAS officer in 1990s. Lovely Anand has been fielded from Sheohar.

Vijay Lakshmi Kushwaha is the wife of former MLA Ramesh Singh Kushwaha. The couple joined the JD (U) only recently. She has been given fielded from Siwan.

Chirag Paswan’s LJP (Ramvilas), which is contesting in five seats, has fielded one woman candidate, Shambhavi Choudhary from Samastipur. Choudhary is the daughter of rural development department minister Ashok Choudhary and granddaughter of former minister Mahavir Choudhary.

The RJD list is somewhat better, but its first family is writ large. The party, which is in the fray in 23 seats, has nearly half a dozen women in its list. It has fielded Archana Ravidas from Jamui and Bima Bharti, former MLA from Rupauli in Purnea district, from Purnea Lok Sabha seat.

RJD supremo Lalu Prasad’s daughter Rohini Acharya is set to contest from Saran against sitting BJP MP Rajeev Pratap Rudi of the BJP. The RJD chief’s eldest daughter, Misa Bharti, is set to fight from Patliputra seat, where she had unsuccessfully contested in 2019.

Law graduate Anita Devi, who married dreaded gangster Ashok Mahto only last month, is being fielded by RJD from Munger and Ritu Jaiswal is expected to be fielded from Sitamarhi seat.

The lists of Left parties and Congress have no woman. So far, Congress has declared candidates only for three seats — Katihar, Kishanganj and Bhagalpur — of the total nine it’s contesting. Left parties are together contesting on five seats.

“The status of women candidates in the lists of most of the political parties is grim and discouraging,” Meena Tiwari, national general secretary of the All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA), said.

Kanchanbala, a social activist, said the BJP list was most disappointing. “The party has been claiming to be the champion of women’s rights, but not a single woman has been given ticket to contest Lok Sabha elections,” she said.

Amrita Singh, vice-president of Bihar BJP, said the party had repeated old faces in most of the seats. “And in the seats where old faces have been replaced by new ones, no strong woman candidate was available,” she said.

Kanchanbala said the two women fielded by JD (U) have been known for the Bahubali (strongman) background of their spouses.