The Biju Janata Dal’s (BJD) nomination of 22 female candidates for the Assembly elections, though ostensibly an attempt to promote gender equality in ticket distribution, reveals an inconvenient truth as the majority of these women happen to be spouses or daughters of MLAs and influential figures within the party’s existing power structure.
Although most political parties are reluctant to nominate female candidates which leads to a stark under-representation of women in electoral politics, there has been improvement in the situation during past few elections.
The regional party, championing the cause of increased women’s representation in electoral politics, has put forward 22 female candidates out of the 117 announced for the Assembly elections so far. This marks an enhancement in female candidate participation compared to the 2019 elections, where only 20 out of 147 candidates were women. Notably, in the previous election, 12 BJD women candidates had emerged victorious.
