Polling officials carry electronic voting machines on the eve of first phase of voting for Assembly elections in Assam. (PTI photo)
They may have trumped men in the turnout for the first phase of the Assembly elections in Assam, but women make up an abysmal 8.6 per cent of the total candidates in the fray with all the major parties having given fewer tickets to them this time as compared to the 2011 polls.
The number of women in the electoral arena in these polls is only six more than that in 2011, when 85 of them had entered as contestants and 14 -- all from Congress -- made it to the state legislature.
All the major parties -- Congress, BJP and its allies AGP and BPF, and the AIUDF have given fewer tickets to women candidates this time than in the last elections.
The ruling Congress has fielded 16 women candidates, including 12 sitting legislators, as against 19 in the last polls. Two sitting Congress legislators -- Mandira Roy from Algapur and Amiya Gogoi from Duliajan -- were denied tickets.
BJP, which is contesting in 89 seats, too, has given fewer tickets to female candidates, fielding only six of them as against nine in 2011.
Similar is the case with AGP, which has put up only two women candidates as against eight in the last polls. The other BJP ally, BPF, which had fielded three women contestants in 2011 has given tickets to only two of them this time. AIUDF, the principal opposition party in the Assembly, is contesting 74 Assembly seats and has given tickets to five women candidates.
In the last assembly polls, 77.02 per cent male voted as against 75 per cent of women.
Election data said the turnout of women in the first phase of voting on Monday was 82.58 per cent while that of men was 81.84 per cent. The second and final phase of voting for Assam's 126-seat Assembly will be held on April 11.