HYDERABAD: Almost all political parties, including TRS, Congress and CPI have made the right noises when it comes to reservation for women in state assemblies and Lok Sabha. But a cursory glance at the number of tickets given to women candidates in the upcoming assembly election in Telangana is enough to establish the ground reality is very different.Put together, all parties have so far allocated about 25 seats in the 119 assembly constituencies. Many of the women have been given tickets on seats where the party is considerably weak and have little chance of winning.Only in March 2018, TRS MP and chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao’s daughter, Kavitha, said the time to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill had come and she expected it to be passed in the next session of Parliament. Her party, however, allocated tickets to only four women, all of whom are sitting MLAs. The party had six MLAs in 2014, but it did not give tickets to Konda Surekha (Warangal West) and Bodige Shobha (Choppadani). They quit TRS and got tickets from other parties.Congress, which struggled to finalise seat-sharing with other Praja Kutami coalition partners, has so far announced tickets to about 10 women while TDP, contesting 14 seats, has fielded a lone women candidate: N T Rama Rao’s granddaughter Nandamuri Suhasini from Kukatpally.BJP has given tickets to nearly a dozen women. This includes Mahila Morcha president Akula Vijaya, who will take on chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in Gajwel.In Greater Hyderabad, there was no woman representation in 2014. This time, Congress, TDP and BJP have given tickets to one candidate each: Sabita Indra Reddy from Maheshwaram, Nandamuri Suhasini from Kukatpally and Shahazadi from Chandrayangutta.Though some women TRS corporators aspired for ticket from various segments, the party as a policy, did not allocate them tickets. P Vijaya Reddy and Gadjwal Vijaya Lakshmi sought an opportunity to contest on a TRS ticket from Khairtabad, but the party turned them down.“The attitude of major political parties only reflects the way society treats women. Their issues are grossly neglected. Without asking for it, they should get 50% seats in politics,” says Lubna Sarwath, AAP’s 2014 Hyderabad Lok Sabha candidate.BJP state president K Laxman says, “NDA not only inducted women MPs in the cabinet but also gave important portfolios such as defence and external affairs to them.”

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