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.
Interestingly, out of the 22 women in the fray, 13 are related to former and current MLAs and MPs, making up nearly 60% of the total female candidates.
Dipali Das, the daughter of the late former Minister Naba Kisore Das, has been renominated for the Jharsuguda Assembly seat. Meanwhile, Alaka Mohanty, the widow of former Speaker Kishore Mohanty, is once again contesting in the upcoming election following her victory in the bypoll for the neighbouring Brajarajanagar seat.
Rita Sahu, a current Minister and the wife of the late former Congress MLA Subal Sahu, has been renominated for the Bijepur seat. Another ministerial colleague, Tukuni Sahu, is the widow of the former BJD leader Abhimanyu Sahu.
In Ganjam district, the BJD has chosen Manjula Swain, the widow of former BJD MP Ladu Kishore Swain, as its candidate for the Aska constituency while the party has placed its trust in Sanghamitra Swain, the wife of BJD MLA Purnachandra Swain, for the Surada constituency.
Candidates Latika Naik and Nabina Naik are the wives of Subas Gond and Dusmant Naik, respectively, both of whom contested the 2019 Assembly elections on BJD tickets. In seats like Badasahi, Basta, Paradip, and Nabarangpur, women candidates have been selected allegedly on basis of their influence of their spouse.
According to BJD sources, women candidates were preferred over their male counterparts as the popularity graph of their spouses had declined to such an extent with their victory appearing increasingly difficult. The regional party also tried to secure the support of established political families to prevent potential rebellions that could jeopardise the prospects of new candidates.
In the BJD candidate list, there were self-made women candidates like Pramilla Mallick, who is contesting from Binjharpur in Jajpur district. Ms. Mallick has climbed the political ladder through her efforts and has gone on to become Speaker of the Odisha Legislative Assembly and Cabinet Minister. Not hailing from any political family, Meena Majhi, who has been nominated for Keonjhar Assembly seat, had previously won Zilla Parishad elections.
“It is a clear case of making virtue out of necessity. The party wants to give higher representation to women while at the same time, it does not want to hamper its winning probability. By fielding women connected to political families, the BJD tried to play safe,” said Rabi Das, veteran journalist and a political commentator.
Mr. Das further said the BJD has at least attempted to increase women’s representation in electoral politics whereas other parties like Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress have lagged behind in this aspect.
The BJD takes credit for creating six lakh women self-help groups (WSHG) with the involvement of 70 lakh women. Many SHG women have assumed leadership roles. However, it seems that the regional party has failed to tap enough potential candidates within the WSHG pool.
In 2018, the BJD led by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik tried to build consensus around 33% reservation for women in Parliament. Just before the election on March 10, 2019, Mr. Patnaik had announced that the party would field 33% women in the Lok Sabha elections. The regional party had then fielded women in seven out of 21 Lok Sabha constituencies. The party has kept the tradition in the 2024 general election.
Political analysts observe that the party’s primary focus on winning Assembly seats has led it to refrain from allotting 33% of total Assembly seats to women.
