THE CONGRESS has supported the women's reservation Bill passed by the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, while questioning the delay before it can be implemented and the non-provision of an OBC quota in it. The Congress could also take some cues from Uttar Pradesh where, in last year's Assembly elections, it put aside 40% tickets for women as part of its high-decibel 'Ladki hun, ladh sakti hun' campaign led by general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Consequently, the party fielded 155 women for the 399 (out of 403) seats it contested, many of whom were candidates with little political presence. Only 2 Congress candidates won overall, among them Aradhna Mishra, the daughter of veteran Congress leader Pramod Tiwari. Most of the women candidates the Congress fielded in the 2022 Assembly elections got less than 1% of the votes polled in their seat, losing their security deposits; a large number got about 2,000 votes in all; and elections done and dusted, few have been seen at party events since. While Congress leaders argue that the fact that the election became “bipolar” – between the BJP and Samajwadi Party – was the reason for the party's poor performance, many admit in private that the top-down imposition of candidates without groundwork was a factor. Says a senior Congress leader: “While it is hard to ascertain who has left the party since the elections – unless and until they announce so officially – one clear indicator was that at a meeting held of the party's Assembly election candidates (after the polls), only about 38-40 women candidates showed up. Some even sent their husbands.” However, the leader adds that it is unfair to single out the party's women candidates. “We contested on 399 seats and the male candidates also met the same fate, as just one won.” Aradhna Mishra – who won for the third time from Pratapgarh's Rampur Khas, a seat held by her father seven times – says there was nothing wrong with the party's women-centric campaign. Having travelled across the state with Priyanka as part of the 'Ladki hun, ladh sakti hun' pitch, she says it connected with women, but it was perhaps too early for them to understand its concept. The Congress Legislature Party Leader, Mishra adds: “It is wrong to call it (the fielding of women on 40% seats) an experiment. It was a well-thought-out and planned decision, taking into consideration the kind of atrocities women were facing across the state, right from Unnao to Hathras. The basic concept was to enable women to raise their voice in a patriarchal society. Women connected to us with ease,” says Mishra. She adds that there could be many reasons the gambit didn't work. “Maybe because it was the first time, people could not understand it initially.” Which is why, according to Mishra, having reservations for women could change things. “It is a fact that things changed when quota was given to women in panchayat polls. I contested the block elections from a seat reserved for women.” In the 2022 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, a total of 559 women were in the race. Besides the 155 on Congress ticket, 45 were fielded by the BJP, 38 by the BSP and about 42 by the Samajwadi Party. Of the 559 women candidates, 47 won – 1 of the Congress, 12 of the SP, and the remaining of the BJP and its allies. The results clearly paralleled the fortunes of the respective parties. In 2017, for example, when it contested in alliance with the SP, the Congress had fielded only 12 women among its 114 candidates. Of them, 2 won. The party itself won 7 seats, with most of its women candidates getting more than 40,000 votes each. The 2017 campaign by the Congress was not women-centric and Priyanka was not in the picture, but the party still had some hold in the state and the alliance with the SP helped. While they featured among the Congress women candidates who lost, several performed creditably in 2017 – Vimlesh Kumari got about 26% of the total votes in Chandausi Assembly seat; Uma Kant performed similarly well in Kalpi; Usha Maurya got nearly 31% of the votes cast; and Zeeba Rehman finished with about 21% of the votes in Tulsipur. In 2022, the Congress again fielded a woman from the Chandausi Assembly seat, Mithilesh Kumari, but she got merely 1,500 votes, or 0.7% of the total. Similarly, while in 2017, the Congress woman candidate from Manikpur, well-known social worker Sampat Pal, secured about 40,000 votes and 20% vote share, in 2022, its candidate Ranjana Bharti Lal from the seat got a mere 4,110 votes (1.98% of the total). Of the two women candidates of the Congress who won in 2017, Aradhna Mishra was victorious again in 2022, but Aditi Singh left the party for the BJP. Having won from the Rae Bareli Assembly seat with 1.2 lakh votes (61% of the total), she left the Congress before the 2022 Assembly elections. In the 2022 Assembly polls, she contested as the BJP candidate from Rae Bareli and won again, securing about 1 lakh votes. Mishra won by a huge margin in both 2017 (81,000 votes or 47% of the total) and 2022 (86,000 votes or about 50% of the total). But Rampur Khas is a traditional seat of the party, as well as the turf of Mishra's father Pramod Tiwari. Asked about the performance of the party's women candidates in 2022, Congress spokesperson Priyanka Gupta said: “There is more than one reason behind a loss, but a women-centric campaign was certainly not one of them. On the other hand, it attracted the attention and support of women, girls. Just that it will take time for people to accept it.” While reluctant to publicly talk about the 2022 campaign given that Priyanka Gandhi herself led it, a senior party leader says off the record, “The problem was that hardly anyone was consulted locally and many of these women candidates were outsiders. Had the party backed its own Mahila Congress leaders, they would have at least stayed back and strengthened the party for the future.” Chetna Pandey, the spokesperson of the BJP Mahila Morcha in Uttar Pradesh, says the Congress effort towards women's representation was piecemeal. "The public was not convinced about their seriousness regarding empowering women in Uttar Pradesh. That is why, despite the fact that they gave a large number of tickets to women, even the face of their campaign (Ladki hun, ladh sakti hoon) joined the BJP, and why most of their women candidates are not visible like their party leaders.” Since the Congress lost, Priyanka Gandhi has not been active in Uttar Pradesh. Story in numbers * In 2017, Cong, contesting in alliance with SP, fielded 12 women among 114 candidates. Of them, 2 won. The party itself won 7 seats. Most of its women candidates got more than 40,000 votes each. * In 2022, Cong fielded 155 women among 399 candidates. 2 candidates of the party won, 1 of them a woman. Most got less than 1% of votes in their seat, a large number got about 2,000 votes in all. * Of the two women candidates of the Congress who won in 2017, Aradhna Mishra won again in 2022, but Aditi Singh left the party for the BJP.
