In a sense, the R.K.Nagar assembly segment is going to host the mother of all contests this elections. Literally. Not less than five women are contesting the Assembly polls in the constituency.
With Chief Minister Jayalalithaa choosing that constituency for the second time, clearly enthused her massive victory during the 2015 by poll, and having nurtured it well in the interim, other parties also decided to nominate women there. The others include the DMK’s Shimla Muthuchozhan, VCK’s V. Vasanthi Devi, PMK’s F. Agnes and Naam Tamizhar Katchi’s Devi, who is a transgender.
Clearly this is a one off scenario, even if some record is bound to be created in the process. But as we examine this nearly ‘freak incident’ perhaps it provides an opportunity to zoom out to the super plot and see if this will have any impact, short, or long-lasting, on electoral politics at all.
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“I’m taking this with a pinch of salt,” says Anandhi, associate professor, Madras Institute of Development Studies. “I think parties should not have fielded just women.” She puts things in context for us. “The question we should be worried about is whether women have agency to participate in electoral politics, even in development and welfare programmes. Are the women who vote even visible. Do the parties have any connect with women voters and do they actually recognise their needs ? They do not. Women, in their view, are mere beneficiaries."
She is not too excited clearly with the stunt of fielding all women, “it’s absurd logic.” And, more of an aberration. It is true, she argues, that Ms. Jayalalithaa definitely invokes a mother image, which is very powerful. “People are voting for Amma, but they also see her as state power.”
But the other women who stand opposite her are mere instruments to defeat Jayalalitha and women continue to be only instrumental in electoral politics. That is what the parties also want. They might split some of the votes that go to Ms. Jayalalithaa, but they also split it among themselves. “Ultimately, all women who enter politics and are in power only strengthen state patriarchy. How much ever they say they are engendering politics, they are merely strengthening state role,”Ms. Anandhi says.
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Of the four other candidates, Ms. Vasanthi Devi is a much feted former Vice Chancellor, who has served on various Commissions; Shimla Muthuchozhan is a lawyer and with links to the old DMK guard; F.Agnes is a nurse-turned social worker and Devi, also interested in Social Work. All women who are known in their line of work perhaps, if not in the constituency itself.
But one cannot wish away the thought, a sneaking suspicion: are they just the sacrificial candidates? “Why only women? When you know your opponent is formidable as Jayalalithaa, what do you do? You appoint other women there,” says Swarna Rajagopalan, political scientist, and founder, Prajnya, an NGO. She thinks when there are high profile candidates, the tendency is to pit women against them, not quite caring about the winnability of the candidate, or indeed, pitching for a loss.
However, she thinks that the nomination of someone like Ms. Vasanthi Devi is an indication that good women are willing to enter electoral politics. Even if winnability is still some distance away. Ms. Anandhi takes a contrarian view, she says," While i am not against Ms. Vasanthidevi's candidature, if VCK is to counter state power represented by Jayalalitha they must field a grassroots dalit woman who represents the interests of dalit women vis- a vis the state power."
There is no doubt that R.K.Nagar is a peculiar, even bizarre circumstance. But certainly, by the time the results are out, irrespective of the result, there is likely to be more than one lesson from here that those with an interest in electoral politics can draw.