The Hindu : Other States / Maharashtra News : No women to represent constituencies dominated by them

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Monday, Apr 05, 2004

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Other States - Maharashtra

No women to represent constituencies dominated by them

MUMBAI, APRIL 4. Despite the voices raised over women's representation, the four Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra -- Rajapur, Satara, Ratnagiri and Karad -- which boasts of higher female voter ratio, find themselves devoid of a woman candidate to contest the polls.

Rajapur, located in the Konkan coastal belt in the state, has a voting population which comprises over 50 per cent females.

In adjacent Ratnagiri district, women power dominated again with 5,01,057 female registered as eligible voters as against the 4,11,579 males.

Also joining the rare list of constituency where the female voters population outnumbered the male voting population was Satara with the electoral list showing 5,76,548 women voters. The male voters in this constituency in southern Maharashtra numbered 5,69,765 only.

The constituency of Karad also registers an existence of higher female voters ratio vis-a-vis the male ratio. The fairer sex accounted for a voting population of 5,90,366 while the male population numbered 5,90,267.

Despite being the only four Lok Sabha constituencies in the state to have a larger women voting population, not a single female candidate has been fielded from these constituencies.

While last year the Sena fielded Suresh Prabhu, the Janata Dal (S) put up the veteran leader Madhu Dandavate in Rajapur, the Congress decided to field Major Sudhir Sawant.

This year the contest would see a tough fight between sitting Sena MP Prabhu and Congress' Sudhir Sawant.

In Ratnagiri constituency which comprises areas like Guhagar, Chiplun, Khed, Dapodi and Mahad, the last year's contest saw a tussle between Anant Geete of the Sena, Ziman Sujit Bhagoji of NCP and Rajaram Shinde of Congress.

This year the battle lines were drawn between the sitting MP Geete and Govind Nikam of NCP.

In the key constituency of Satara, the 1999 battle of ballots saw six contestants sweating it out. They were Laxmanrao Patil (NCP), Hindurao Nimbalkar (Sena), Yeshwantrao Nimbalkar (Congress), Laxman Waman Jadhav (MPKP), Jadhav Laxman Sopan (Independent) and Sangita Jagdish Gaikwad. This year the battle is between Laxmanrao Patil (NCP) and Hindurao N Naik Nimbalkar (Sena).

In Karad, Shrinivas Dadasaheb Patil (NCP), Prithviraj Chavan (Congress), Vasant Mankumare (Sena) and Baburao Patil (independent) tried their luck. This time the contest would see Shrinivas Patil of NCP and Vasant of Sena testing their popularity in the political waters dominated by women.

-- PTI

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