Nagpur: Women's empowerment is the political catchword of the election season in Maharashtra with BJP flaunting its flagship Ladki Bahin scheme and Congress promising a Rs3,000 monthly dole to women if elected. Yet, when it comes to representation in the electoral fray, only 356 women candidates are contesting across Maharashtra — only 8.6% of the total 4,135 candidates, as per Election Commission data.
What makes these statistics striking is that it's a record-breaking high. Since the state's first assembly polls in 1962, no election has witnessed over 300 women in the race till now, despite thousands of candidates contesting over the decades. The highest before the 2024 elections was in 2014, during which women contestants numbered 277, with 3,842 total candidates in the fray.
Political analyst Anjali Gaidhane said, "Despite increasing political promises on women's welfare, the low percentage of female candidates in Maharashtra reflects deep-rooted patriarchal bias. Political parties often implement empowerment schemes superficially, without addressing systemic barriers faced by women in society. The significant milestone of exceeding 300 female candidates is a positive step, yet it underscores the slow pace of change in a traditionally male-dominated political landscape."
A TOI analysis of the electoral roll by seats revealed more than 90 constituencies have no women candidates in the fray, while over 90 others have just one. The highest women representation is in Pune's Parvati constituency, where 7 of the 15 candidates are women. Additionally, 62 constituencies have two women candidates, 25 have three, eight have four, four constituencies feature five women contestants, and only two constituencies have six and seven women in the race respectively. Between 1962 and 2019, approximately 3,684 candidates won assembly seats, but only 161 of them — just 4% — were women, as per ECI data.
Gaidhane also added, "Many political parties expend substantial public funds on freebies to cultivate lucrative voter banks, often misleading women into believing these gestures equate to empowerment. In reality, there are few substantive empowerment schemes aimed at enhancing their representation in politics. Only through a comprehensive approach addressing both systemic barriers and societal norms can we truly enhance women's representation in politics."
Of Maharashtra's 36 districts, five have more female than male voters — Bhandara, Gondia, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, and Nandurbar. Among these, Ratnagiri has the largest gender gap, with 47,334 more female voters than males. Nagpur urban also witnessed a higher count of women voters, though this trend reverses at the district level, where men are in majority. Similarly, Mumbai Suburban shows a significant male voter lead, with over 5 lakh more men than women — a difference that may be the largest across the state.
An Independent candidate, Abha Pande from Nagpur East constituency, though associated with NCP-Ajit, had filed the nomination as a rebel. Talking to TOI, Pande said, "Political parties frequently speak about women's equality and empowerment, yet when it comes to awarding party tickets to female candidates, they fall silent. All talk of women's empowerment seems to vanish when it truly matters."
(With inputs by Tanisha Jaiswal & Shifra Newton)