A woman for every seat in assembly polls: WPI

The Womanist Party of India, the first all-women party of the country is gearing itself to field female candidates for all the seats during the forthcoming state assembly elections.

The Womanist Party of India, the first all-women party of the country is gearing itself to field female candidates for all the seats during the forthcoming state assembly elections.

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"We will be fielding a woman representative from all assembly constituencies in the state," the party president Varsha Kale said here today.

"The contestants would be all all new faces and those who could represent the female gender", she said.

WPI, which launched its membership drive in November 2003, now has over 20,000 members and efforts were on to increase the base by assembly elections.

The party came into existence to represent the problems of women and to take up issues facing the female section of the society.

WPI, which is the third autonomous women's party in Asia, is currently focussing on building its presence at the grassroot level.

However, the WPI is not contesting the Lok Sabha elections, she said.

"The participation of women in local governance has made a difference, however, their reach is limited. Hence, our target is the assembly elections, which would expand to the Lok Sabha", she said.

Currently, the group was focussing on Maharashta and has long-term plans of extending outside the state.