222 women contesting in Assembly polls 2023

Out of 2,290 candidates contesting for the Telangana State Sssembly elections 2023, only 222 candidates are women, which means less than 10 per cent. Activists and people of Telangana say that if they have dedication towards women development they could have given at least half of the seats to them.
Bharata Rashtra Samithi (BRS) fielded 8 women candidates and Congress fielded 12 women. From the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 13 women, from Jana Sena Party one and from Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) 9 candidates are contesting for this election. Independents are 87 and the rest of them are from various parties.
Social activist and Padma Shri awardee Sunitha Krishnan said, “The number of women contesting from different parties is an indication of those parties’ commitment to women leadership. Demanding 33 per cent reservation is actually creating a platform within your own party. At least for the namesake, a few parties do not even have women candidates. The voters and citizens should understand how these parties give women leadership. Parties have supported the bill in Parliament, but on the ground, it is different. This is a sad thing that when reservation comes people will start it.”
The Central government has passed the Women’s Reservation Bill, 2023 in September of this year. This legislation seeks to allocate 33 per cent of the seats in the directly elected Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies for women.  The reservation will come into force soon after the first delimitation (frozen until 2026).
The Progressive Organisation for Women (POW) national convenor said, ” These political parties do not have the sincerity towards upliftment of the women. A woman’s voice is necessary. The political parties’ dedication reflects that women are more far back than men in the society”.