DKS asks Mahila Congress members to start preparing to contest polls when 33% quota comes into effect

DKS urges Mahila Congress to prepare women candidates for upcoming elections with 33% quota bill in effect.

Deputy Chief Minister and KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar on Saturday called upon the State unit of the Mahila Congress to prepare women candidates for the coming State Legislative Assembly elections as 74 out of the 224 constituencies — going by the current strength — will be reserved for women when the law on women’s reservation comes into effect.

The law provides one-third reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies.

The party has been giving the ticket to 10 or 12 women members to contest the Assembly elections. How to find winnable candidates in case 74 constituencies are reserved for women in the 2028 Assembly elections is a question, the KPCC chief said.

Noting that identifying children and wives of MLAs and MPs as candidates for the Assembly elections was not the solution, Mr. Shivakumar told the party workers to work hard towards becoming candidates in the next polls.

Addressing women members of the party at a function organised to mark International Women’s Day, Mr. Shivakumar spoke at length about the five guarantee schemes and benefits they provide to women.

Mr. Shivakumar, who has completed five years in office as the KPCC president, said the 2023 election manifesto had given preferences to many concerns of women and youth. Stating that he was not satisfied with the functioning of the Karnataka Mahila Congress, Mr. Shivakumar appealed to women members to devote more time to the party and use the opportunities they have.

He also told them to register beneficiaries of the Gruha Lakshmi scheme as members of the Congress. The party has not won many seats in the coastal parts of the State. To ensure the party’s victory in more constituencies, he told the Mahila Congress office-bearers to intensively involve guarantee scheme beneficiaries for the party work.