Keeping up with UP: Can mere lip service ensure support of women voters

Except for Kerala, three of the four key states going to the polls—Assam, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal—have had women chief ministers

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi created a buzz in poll-bound Kerala by pitching for a woman chief minister. Addressing a rally ahead of the April 9 assembly elections, Gandhi said he looked forward to the day when the state, with almost 100% literacy, greater gender parity, and high social indices, would get its first woman top elected official.

The representation of women in the legislatures has remained dismal. (ANI/Representative)

Congress has, ironically, fielded just nine women candidates, accounting for less than 10% of its total 92 nominees. Memes showing Congress leaders VD Satheesan, KC Venugopal, Shashi Tharoor, Ramesh Chennithala, and K Sudhakaran in sarees highlighted the irony.

Analysts believe that Gandhi’s statement was not out of the blue but a calculated move, endorsing the Congress-led United Democratic Front manifesto, which promises welfare and women’s empowerment. Women voters have played a decisive role in poll outcomes in places such as Bihar (2025), thanks to the cash deposit scheme for them, among other things.

Gandhi’s mere expression of desire, without projecting a woman chief ministerial candidate, is unlikely to work in a state like Kerala, where awareness levels and ambitions are higher.

Except for Kerala, three of the four key states going to the polls—Assam, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal—have had women chief ministers. Mamata Banerjee hopes to return to power for a fourth time since 2011 in West Bengal.

The late J Jayalalithaa served as chief minister of Tamil Nadu over six terms between 1991 and 2016. Assam has had only one woman chief minister, Congress’s Syeda Anwara Taimur (December 6, 1980 to June 30, 1981).

Overall, 12 states and one Union territory have had 18 women chief ministers since 1963. Sucheta Kriplani became Uttar Pradesh’s first woman chief minister in October 1963, decades before Mayawati rose to hold the state’s top elected position four times. There are currently only two women chief ministers, Mamata Banerjee and Rekha Gupta (Delhi).

India has had women presidents, a prime minister (Indira Gandhi), and speakers of the Lok Sabha (Sumitra Mahajan and Meira Kumar). But only a few women have headed political parties. Sushma Swaraj became the first woman chief minister of Delhi and rose to the position of Bharatiya Janata Party’s general secretary. Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), J Jayalalithaa (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), and Mayawati (Bahujan Samaj Party) have represented strong women-led parties.

The representation of women in the legislatures has remained dismal, but women have outnumbered men in voting in states like Kerala. According to the Election Commission of India, of the 26,953,644 voters in Kerala, 13,126,048 are male, 13,827,319 are female, and 277 are transgender. Kerala recorded a 76% voter turnout in the 2021 assembly polls, with almost as many women as men voting. In Uttar Pradesh, women have also voted as actively as men.

An analysis by the news portal Newslick in March 2021 showed Kerala has elected 2,027 candidates in a total of 14 assembly elections, with only 91 of them being women. Kerala implemented a 50% quota for women in local self-government institutions in 2009, but women’s representation in the state legislature has remained dismal.

Against this backdrop, will Rahul Gandhi’s wish to see a woman chief minister in Kerala still galvanise the women voters to support the Congress? Will a desire for political empowerment prove to be a game-changer?