Most political parties trumpet their aims and ambitions when it comes to women’s representation in Parliament, but Jammu and Kashmir has never had adequate women’s representation in politics, despite having almost 49% female voters.
People’s Democratic Party President Mehbooba Mufti, who on Thursday submitted her nominations for the Anantnag-Rajouri seat, remains the only female candidate in J&K’s political spectrum.
She will square off against prominent Gujjar leader Mian Altaf from NC.
The former chief minister requested the people of Jammu and Kashmir “not to boycott the polls, as the election is a crucial stand against the assault on the region’s dignity, identity, and resources.”
She called for voters to reject attempts to enforce a boycott, and asked everyone to "vote for candidates who will advocate for the oppressed and incarcerated.”
Despite the political rhetoric advocating equal rights, on-ground reality paints a contrasting picture.
So far, since 1977, J&K has only had three women candidates elected to parliament. Akbar Jahan Begum, the wife of Sheikh Abdullah, represented the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat in 1977 and was again re-elected from the Anantnag constituency in 1984. After her, Parvati Devi secured a seat from Ladakh on a Congress ticket in 1977.
From 1984 onwards, no women were elected to Parliament from Jammu and Kashmir till 2004. It was Mehbooba Mufti who contested from Anantnag and became an MP from the erstwhile state after a gap of 20 years.
Following her victory, however, she failed to notch up another win for a decade, and it was in 2014 when she bagged the Anantnag seat after her father, late Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, promised voters a big change in the region.
However, she was defeated by NC’s Justice Retd Hasnain Masoodi in the 2019 polls.
The major reason for failure is attributed to the revocation of Article 370 in 2019, which saw her popularity plummet.
Although she is trying hard to recover lost ground, Mehbooba Mufti seems overly ambitious to think that the people of Kashmir, especially the Anantnag region, will send her to Parliament for the third time.
Apart from her, there is not a single women candidate fielded by the rest of the major parties from Jammu and Kashmir including the BJP, which has been tomtomming its achievements with the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023, which reserves one-third of all seats for women in Lok Sabha, State legislative assemblies and the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, including those reserved for SCs and STs.
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