Chhattisgarh polls: Korba district has almost equal men-women divide but no female candidate

Raipur, Nov 12: In the district of Korba in poll-bound Chhattisgarh, not a single woman has been fielded even though 11 of them sought tickets from various parties. While one woman from Pali-Tanakhar nominated herself as Independent after her party did not give her ticket, some others took the nomination forms but never submitted them, Naidunia reported. The district hasn't seen a single woman MLA in the last six-and-half decades.

In Korba, the number of electorate is 8.16 lakh of which 4.09 lakh are men and 4.06 lakh are women. But despite the close difference, the district hasn't seen a woman legislator in over six decades. In 1962, the Congress's Yagyaseni Devi, who belonged to the zamindar family from Chhuri, was elected from the Scheduled Tribe seat of Tanakhar (then in undivided Madhya Pradesh) and she has been the last till date.

According to the Naidunia report, it's not that there is a lack of able women leaders in the district - both in the ruling BJP and Congress but somehow they don't manage to get tickets. In Korba constituency, Sanjudevi Rajput made a strong demand for a ticket but the BJP didn't oblige. In Katghora, Congress's district panchayat member Meera Kanwar and former district panchayat member Reena Ajay Jaiswal wanted to get tickets but their names were never discussed, the report added. The tickets finally went to male candidates.

In 2013, the BJP and Congress won two seats each in Korba district. The seat will go to polls on November 20, when Chattisgarh will see its second phase of polling. The last date for filing nomination for the second phase was on November 2. However, it is difficult to imagine that a district with almost equal division of population gender-wise, there are no women candidates.

The first phase of polling in Chhattisgarh will take place on Monday, November 12. Eighteen out of 90 seats are going to polls in this phase.