Odisha Congress to field more women in 2019 polls

Bhubaneswar: As the poll dates approach and campaign gets intensified in the state, political parties in Odisha are leaving no stone unturned to turn things around in their favour. Moving a step forward in this battle of ballot with the BJD and the BJP, Odisha Congress on Wednesday declared that it would give more tickets to women candidates in 2019 polls.

Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) chief Niranjan Patnaik, who returned from New Delhi after attending a screening committee meeting to speed up finalisation of tickets, informed that the state unit of the party had been directed by AICC to give more tickets to women candidates in the upcoming elections.

Mr Patnaik said candidates had already been shortlisted for 15 Lok Sabha and 105 Assembly seats and the names would be declared soon.

“We have to do some field works as we are advised to propose names of more women candidates. We discussed selection of candidates for the first three phases of polls in Odisha; but yet to discuss on finalisation of candidates for the fourth phase,” he said.

He further said that three Lok Sabha seats had been reserved for its allies- Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Communist Party of India (CPI).

BJD supremo and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik had earlier declared 33 per cent reservation for women in the allocation of Lok Sabha tickets for the party. Similarly, TMC leader and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee had on Tuesday given a tickets to 17 women out of 42 Lok Sabha seats in her state.

Women voters comprise 50 per cent of Odisha’s 3.18 crore total electorate and this has prompted political parties here to chalk out strategies to woo women votes.