Pune politicos all out to woo women voters

With civic elections scheduled early next year, the political fraternity in Pimpri-Chinchwad has already started wooing the electorate.

Women corporators — both incumbent and aspiring ones — are busy organising grand haldi-kunkoo and tilgul functions, which kicked off after Makar Sankranti.

It is a social gathering, in which married women exchange haldi (turmeric) and kumkum (vermilion powder), as a symbol of their married status and wish for their husbands’ long lives.

They invite friends, relatives and acquaintances to meet in an atmosphere of merriment and fun.

The programmes will continue till Rathsaptami (February 10). Calendars with leaders’ photos and party policies and books on pilgrimages are being gifted to invitees.

A woman politician, who organised such an event, remarked that no woman ever denies an invitation of a haldi-kunkoo function. “It definitely enables us to reach out to the women in our wards. We build relationships, which help us during the elections,” she said.

There are several small savings and women’s groups owing allegiance to different corporators, which organise such programmes. Some men corportors also inaugurated such functions, traditionally exclusively meant for women.

A woman corporator said they aim to influence the woman of the house, who in turn asks other voters in her house to vote for candidate of her choice.

However, some educated women voters said such tactics do not yield much.

“Voters are not fools to get swayed by such programmes. We shall vote only for those who can solve our problems,” said one woman voter.