There used to be a time when elections were for men and the role of women was only to cast their votes. This situation saw a dramatic change just a few years ago when 50 per cent of the seats in local bodies were reserved for women. Setting aside all complaints about unavailability of suitable female candidates to fill the 50 per cent seats, the law ensured the rise of at least a few good women leaders.
Ironically, it was seen that even mainstream political parties deliberately restricted their women candidates to the reserved seats while general seats remain male bastions, though not without exceptions. The final line up of candidates to the 75 wards of Kozhikode Municipal Corporation shows that women who indeed got a chance to contest alongside men mainly banked on their familiarity with the ward.
Alongside men
There are eight woman contestants in Kozhikode Corporation contesting from a general ward, alongside men. Interestingly six of them are sitting councillors of the Corporation while the remaining two are fresh recruits.
Youth Congress State Secretary Vidya Balakrishnan is the most prominent of the lot defending councillorship in Chevayur, fighting against Nationalist Congress party’s Baby Vasan and Bharatiya Janata Party’s P.N. Narayanan.
Anitha Krishnannunni in Kudilthodu has Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s V.T. Sathyan and BJP’s Surendran Puthiyedath against her while M.C. Sudhamani in Kallai has Kanangott Haridasan of CPI(M) and P. Biju of BJP against her.
Both Anita and Sudhamani are Congress candidates. The IUML has once again fielded Ayishabi Pandikasala from Thiruvannur and pitched against her is M.Ramadasan of CPI(M). Meanwhile Kavita Arun, the sitting councillor of Kommeri, continues to be an independent candidate supported by IUML. M.C. Anil kumar of CPI(M) and Odatt Subramanyan of BJP are her major opponents.
The LDF has only one female candidate in a general seat - Sreeja Harish, the sitting councillor of Cheruvannur East.
Interestingly one of BJP’s similar candidates P. Ananda Kanakam is pitched against her, along with N. Ratnakaran of Congress. The second BJP candidate contesting in a general seat is Deepa.T.Manu in Moonnalingal pitched against P.K. Kabir of Janata Dal Secular and Thomas T. Mathew of Janata Dal United.
Though small, the presence of these candidates in fray is a sure sign that the women power is not easily restricted to reserved seats and gives hope that there indeed will be a time when reservations become irrelevant.
