Krishna district has put up a poor show in giving a fair representation to women in politics if the number of women elected to the State Assembly is an indication. The apparent discrimination against women is startling despite the fact that women voters outnumber their male counterpart in the district.
A good political representation of women in this district is a myth as the number of women elected to the Assembly was just eleven since the formation of Andhra Pradesh while a mere 50 and odd women have contested the elections in the last six decades. And, of the eleven women MLAs, three were elected in by-polls conducted in 1970, 1986 and 2001, while only two women were elected twice from the district.
A majority of the Assembly segments in the district did not elect any women representative since 1955 while segments like Gudivada, Gannavaram, Mudinepalli, Vijayawada (East), Nidumolu (SC), Jaggaiahpet, Vuyyur have a history of electing women candidates. There were 17 Assembly segments in the district till 2004 elections and the number has come down to 16 post-delimitation in 2009.
Poor showSo far, more than 58 women candidates entered the contest since 1957 and a majority of them had tried their luck as independent candidates while parties like the TDP, Congress, CPI (M) and BSP fielded women candidates on a few occasions. And, in most of the cases, the voting did not exceed two per cent of the total valid votes with the exception of those who contested on tickets of the recognised political parties.
Three TDP MLAs, five Congress MLAs and one CPI (M) MLA have been elected so far, while two MLAs of the TDP and the Congress were elected twice. However, more than 180 male candidates (the number includes MLAs elected more than once) have been elected from the district since the 50s.
Interestingly, no woman was elected from Gudivada, the native place of TDP founder N.T. Rama Rao who gave equal property inheritance to women. NTR, who had a record of contesting from two segments simultaneously, chose to field a male candidate in the by-election in 1985 after he had tendered his resignation. Raavi Sobhanadri Chowdary was fielded in the by-election.
Yerneni Sita Devi of the TDP won from Mudinepalli segment in 1985 and 1994, while Vangaveeti Ratnakumari of the Congress emerged victorious from Vijayawada (East) in 1989 and 1994. D. Padmajyothi of the Congress won from Tiruvur in 2009 general elections.
