The BJP has declared all the Lok Sabha seats which will go to polls in the first four phases of the seven-phase parliamentary elections.
Even as the talks of 33 per cent reservation to women in the Parliament are doing the rounds, 47 of the 407 Lok Sabha candidates the ruling BJP announced so far are women. Translated into percentage, 11.54 per cent candidates the BJP has fielded so far are women.
The BJP has declared all the Lok Sabha seats which will go to polls in the first four phases of the seven-phase parliamentary elections.
There is an increase in women candidates the BJP has fielded this time in compression to 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Data suggests that the BJP had fielded only 38 women (8.87 per cent) out of 428 seats it had contested in 2014 elections. Similarly, the Congress had fielded 60 women (12.9 per cent) out of the 464 seats it had contested in 2014 Lok Sabha polls. But only a total of 61 women candidates, from various political parties, made to Lok Sabha in 2014 against 59 in 2009, data shows.
The two regional parties – Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress and Naveen Patnaik's BJD – are far ahead as far as fielding women candidates is concerned. While 17 out of the 42 Lok Sabha candidates (40.5 per cent) the TMC has fielded so far are women, 7 out of 21 candidates (33.3 per cent) of the BJD are women.
The Opposition Congress, which has promised to pass the Women's Reservation Bill in its manifesto, however, has fielded 47 women out of 355 LS candidates it announced so far. Translated into percentage, the party has fielded 13.2 per cent women candidates till now.
In Maharashtra – which has 48 Lok Sabha seats – the BJP tops the list of fielding women candidates. The party has fielded 6 are women candidates of the 25 Lok Sabha seats it is contesting. BJP's ally Shiv Sena, which is contesting in 23 seats, fielded 1 woman. While the Congress fielded 3 women candidates, the NCP has fielded 1.
In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP has given tickets to 9 women so far.
"The tickets are given considering the winability factor," said a BJP leader.
In UP, which sends 80 MPs to Lok Sabha, the BJP appears to have applied the social engineering formula while picking up candidates.
In UP, one of the major thrusts of the BJP in this election seems to be on the non-Yadav OBCs, non-Jatav SCs and upper castes especially Brahmins and Kshatriyas, said a political observer.
In the crucial state, the party has so far fielded 16 Brahmin candidates, 16 candidates from the Other Backward Class (OBC), 10 Kshatriyas, 4 Jats, 2 Gujars one each from Vaishya and Bhumihar.
In Bihar, another crucial State where caste matters, the BJP has fielded 9 candidates from the general/ upper castes in an attempt to tap its traditional vote bank. And of them, five are Rajputs, 2 Brahmins, one each from Kayastha and Bhumihar. It could be noted that these four upper castes account for an estimated 13 to 15 per cent of the total electorates in the state. The BJP has fielded 3 Yadavs, 2 Vaishyas and one Dalit.
BJP's ally JDU and LJP have done a delicate balancing act by fielding majority candidates from reserved/ backward and Dalit sections. Both JDU and LJP have filed one Muslim candidate each.
In West Bengal, the BJP has fielded two Muslim candidates, while from the Kashmir valley the party has fielded 3 Muslim candidates. In Kerala, the party has fielded 3 Christian candidates.
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