Cong, Akalis ignore women in alloting tickets

Chandigarh, Jan 18 (UNI) In Punjab, political parties including the two main parties -- the ruling Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) -- have ignored the claims of women, while selecting their candidates for the polls next month.

Only seven women figure in Congress' first list of 98 contestants for the 117 assembly seats, released last night, while only five women find themselves amongst the 94 seats that SAD will be contesting.

The BJP, an electoral ally of SAD, which is contesting 23 seats, has not named a single woman in its first list of 15 candidates.

The Left parties -- CPI(M) and CPI have not named a single woman in their first list of 45 candidates. The Lok Bhalai Party of Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, an electoral ally of the Left, has also not named any woman in its first list of 12 nominees for the February 13 polls.

The five women in the SAD list are former Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Bibi Jagir Kaur from Bholath, former minister Dr Upinderjit Kaur from Sultanpur Lodhi, Mrs Satwinder Kaur Dhaliwal from Amloh (reserve), Mrs Satwant Kaur from Chamkaur Sahib (reserve), and Mrs Mohinder Kaur Josh from Sham Chaurasi (reserve). Bibi Jagir Kaur, Dr Upinderjit Kaur and Mrs Satwant Kaur, also a former minister, are all sitting MLAs, while Mrs Dhaliwal had lost the last polls. Mrs Josh, who had contested as an independent after being denied the SAD ticket for the seat in 2002, too had lost by a narrow margin. She had won from there for the first time in 1997 and went onto become a minister.

The high profile Bibi Jagir Kaur is perhaps the most controversial women contestant in Punjab, facing trial in the case of her own daughter's murder, which was probed by the CBI.

Her tenure in the SGPC was also dogged by controversies, the major one being her refusal to recognise the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (PSGPC) and stopping SGPC-sponsored 'jathas' to the Sikh shrines across the country.

The only woman to head the SGPC, she belongs to the Lubana community, which has a sizeable electorate in the Bholath assembly segment which she won in 1997 and 2002. Her first foray into politics was through the SAD (Amritsar), but later she switched sides and joined hands with SAD chief Prakash Singh Badal.

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