The Congress spokesperson Shama Mohammad has triggered a debate on women’s representation in Keralam after she openly questioned the low number of tickets given to women candidates in the upcoming assembly polls, and senior leader of the Congress Party Shashi Tharoor has supported the concern, though he has also pointed out that parties often cite winnability as a factor in candidate selection. Now the controversy has once again exposed a familiar contradiction in Kerala politics. The state is known for high literacy. It’s known for social indicators that are strong and also politically aware voters, women voters specifically. Yet women remain severely underrepresented when it comes to the Kerala Assembly, with most parties fielding only a small number of female candidates.
So is this just electoral strategy, or a deeper structural bias in Indian politics?
About The Author
