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Journalism of Courage
The 11.43% share of women in the Uttarakhand House, putting it sixth among states in women share in Assemblies as of December 2022, hides several stories: of candidates who stepped in for deceased relatives as parties look for sympathy votes, of candidates with strong political connections, and the lack of choice of Dalit candidates on reserved seats.
In the Assembly elections held in 2022 for the state’s 70 seats, there were 63 women in the race (of the total 632 candidates), of whom 8 women won. After one win in a recent by-election, the number now stands at 9.
High as it might be in terms of percentage when compared to other states, the numbers do not really show a surge for women representation. In the 2017 Assembly elections, for example, almost the same number of women (62) were in the race, of whom 5 had won.
It has been a slow climb since Uttarakhand’s formation in 2000. In the first three elections (in 2002, 2007, and 2012) only 4, 4 and 5 woman candidates had won respectively, with women forming around 7% of the total candidates through those polls.
In 23 years since the state came to being, this has only climbed to 9% now.
At least five of the nine sitting women MLAs belong to families with strong political connections. Kotdwar MLA Ritu Khanduri Bhushan (BJP), also the Speaker, is the daughter of former BJP chief minister B C Khanduri and the wife of a bureaucrat. Before Kotdwar, she represented Yamkeshwar from 2017 to 2022.
Haridwar Rural MLA Co is the daughter of senior Congress leader and former CM Harish Rawat. However, she has been active in politics for long, and used to be an AICC member.
The three other women MLAs with families in politics got tickets after the death of their husbands. Bhagwanpur Congress MLA Mamta Rakesh is the wife of the late veteran Congress leader and two-time MLA from the seat, Surendra Rakesh. Dehradun Cantt MLA Savita Kapoor was fielded by the BJP following the death of her husband Harbans Kapoor, an eight-time BJP MLA from the seat. Kapoor, a former minister and Speaker, had also represented the seat in the UP Assembly four times before the creation of Uttarakhand.
In the recent by-election, the BJP gave a ticket to Parvati Das from the Bageshwar seat, held by her late husband Chandan Ram Das four times.
Besides the five, there are women MLAs in Someshwar and Nainital reserved seats, who were not the strongest candidates in the race but were fielded by the BJP due to their Dalit credentials, Rekha Arya and Sarita Arya, respectively. Sarita Arya was earlier in the Congress. Someshwar had 8 candidates in the race and Nainital 5, lower than the average 9 per seat across the state.
Among the veterans is Shaila Rani Rawat, the BJP MLA from Kedarnath, a two-time winner who was earlier in the Congress. Rawat was one of the nine Congress MLAs who rebelled against the then Harish Rawat government in March 2016 and dislodged his government.
Yamkeshwar MLA Renu Bisht is an activist who contested in 2017 as an Independent ticket but lost, and was fielded by the BJP in 2022.
Coming to parties, the BJP fielded 8, including 4 first-timers, for the 70 seats it contested from, and the Congress 6, including 4 first-timers. Out of the 8 woman candidates who won, 6 are from the BJP and 2 from the Congress.
Among the women candidates who lost was the Congress’s Anukriti Gusain Rawat, who stood from the Lansdowne seat against the daughter-in-law of ex-minister Harak Singh Rawat.
Talking to The Indian Express, Nainital BJP MLA Sarita Arya admits that for parties, winnability comes first, but believes things are changing. “I thank the Prime Minister for bringing the Act to provide 33% reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies… In the hill states, the women are already becoming more empowered and more candidates will come forward,” she says.
Jyoti Rautela, the president of the Congress’s Uttarakhand women’s wing, says it’s not easy for women from non-political backgrounds to make it within parties. However, she hopes that the women’s reservation might open the doors for them, including in terms of party responsibilities.
“If a woman from a non-political background wants to enter politics, even her family is not very supportive. They have their own insecurities as women can feel unsafe (given the requirements of the field)… This all needs to change,” says Rautela.
Jai Singh Rawat, an author and political analyst, is not sure the change will come any time soon. “There have been cases when even winning candidates were not given a ticket for the second time on grounds that their margin of victory was not high enough. Even from among the nine sitting MLAs, only a few will get tickets in the next election,” Rawat says.
In fact, as many as 20% of the total 632 tickets in 2022 were given within political families.
