Congress-turned-BJP neta Rita Joshi mocks '40% tickets to women' plan; cites humiliation

Even as Priyanka Gandhi Vadra announced that Congress will allocate 40% of its poll tickets to women in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, BJP MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi downplayed this development. Once a senior leader of the Congress party, she joined BJP in 2016 and served as a Minister in the Yogi Adityanath-led government in UP before winning the Lok Sabha election in 2019. Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Joshi claimed that the Sonia Gandhi-led party was giving tickets to women in a state where it was going to lose very badly. 

In the 2017 Assembly election, Congress managed to win only 7 seats in the 403-member Assembly even when it was contesting in an alliance with Samajwadi Party. Moreover, the Lok Sabha MP from Allahabad dared Congress to allocate tickets to women in party strongholds such as Amethi and Rae Bareli if it was sincere in its intention. Mocking Congress' claim of women empowerment, Joshi cited her example to assert that many women leaders have been humiliated in the Congress party. 

BJP MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi remarked, "Where are they giving 40% (seats) to women? In Uttar Pradesh where they will not get even 5 seats. We will see how many tickets they give to women in Punjab. What proportion of tickets they did give to women in Karnataka and other states where elections took place? 10-12%. How many tickets they did give to women in the 2019 Parliamentary election? They couldn't stop women who have given so much contribution to this party. Just see how I was treated even though I gave 18 years of my life to Congress without any vested interest."

"Why did Sushmita Dev leave the party? Why did Priyanka Chaturvedi leave the party? I have given you three names, there are hundreds of women who have left the party," she added. 

Big announcement by Congress

Flanked by party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate and Legislative Party leader Aradhana Misra, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra urged women to submit their applications for the election ticket till November 15. The announcement of allocating 40% of the total tickets to women comes at a juncture when the Women's Reservation Bill which aims to reserve one-third of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies is pending for several years. When questioned on whether she would contest the Assembly election and be the CM face, Vadra revealed that Congress was yet to take a decision in this regard. 

Explaining the thought process behind this decision, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra remarked, "If it (proportion of tickets allocated to women) increases here, it will increase at the national level too. I am the UP in-charge. We have taken a decision here with everyone's consent. The rationale for this is that women are not coming together to become a force. They are being divided into caste and religion. The political parties feel that they can women happy by giving a gas cylinder of Rs.2000. But the struggle of women is a very long one."