National Women's Party to contest all 26 LS seats in Gujarat

Newly-formed National Women's Party (NWP) Tuesday announced to contest all the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat in upcoming elections.

Since the party's main objective is to get 50 per cent reservation for women in Parliament, it will field women candidates on 13 seats and may field male nominees on the rest seats in Gujarat, NWP chairperson Dr. Swetha Shetty said.

Shetty was here to launch Ahmedabad unit of the party and appoint office bearers for Gujarat.

"We demand nothing less than 50 per cent reservation for women in Parliament. That is why we will give half of the tickets, that is 13, to only women candidates. Rest 13 Lok Sabha seats are open for male candidates having similar ideologies like ours," she told reporters.

Shetty said the NWP would contest 283 Lok Sabha seats across the country.

She said the NWP was launched in December last year in Delhi, and has a member base of over 3 lakh.

The doctor-turned-activist said the NWP is already registered with the Election Commission (EC), but yet to get a party symbol.

Shetty attributed "poor participation of women in Parliament, assemblies and local bodies" for the issues like child marriage, harassment at workplace etc.

"Patriarchal society has ensured that women remain under-represented in civic bodies and do not have key decision making powers. We want to create a platform to give voice to the women through this party," she said.

At the press meet, cricketer Ravindra Jadeja's sister Naynaba Jadeja has been appointed as the west zone president of the party while Bhavna Jadeja has been made Gujarat president.