Going by the trend, BJP has already started the process by inducting Kiran Bedi, Shazia Ilmi and even actor-politician Jaya Prada.
On the other side, Congress too swung into action and roped in leaders including Prof Kiran Walia and President Pranab Mukherjee’s daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee.
Of Delhi’s 13 million voters, women account for 44.51 percent — the lowest proportion of female voters across the country, according to the Election Commission.
However, their voting percentage has been rising and has gone up from 46.41 percent in the 1998 assembly polls to over 65 percent in 2013.
Issues like women’s security have become important for all political parties and the three main political players in the national capital — the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress — are going the extra mile to show their sensitivity on issues concerning women.
Leaders from the three parties, as also women activists, say that issues concerning women, particularly their safety and education, have moved away from the periphery and are now part of the main political discourse. They say that more and more female voters are taking interest in politics and are making their own choices in casting their ballots, irrespective of the thinking of their family members.
In Delhi, the issue of women’s security has added significance in view of the increasing incidents of crime against them. The grisly gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old physiotherapist in Dec 2013 had forced the people to come out on the streets.
The city reported 1,441 rapes in 2013, according to National Crime Record Bureau data. The AAP and the BJP, considered the main contenders in the upcoming polls, are holding a series of meetings to finalise their vision for the capital’s 5.8 million women. The AAP appears to have taken a lead by conducting a dialogue with women last November which, the party says, was preceded by some 300 meetings spread across all of Delhi’s 70 assembly constituencies.
Among the promises made by the AAP, which finished a close second to the BJP in the 2013 assembly polls, were 200,000 public toilets for women, 100 new courts to fast-track rape cases and wi-fi connected CCTV cameras. Former mayor and BJP leader Aarti Mehra termed the scenario a “welcome change.”
On the other side, Congress too swung into action and roped in leaders including Prof Kiran Walia and President Pranab Mukherjee’s daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee.
Of Delhi’s 13 million voters, women account for 44.51 percent — the lowest proportion of female voters across the country, according to the Election Commission.
However, their voting percentage has been rising and has gone up from 46.41 percent in the 1998 assembly polls to over 65 percent in 2013.
Issues like women’s security have become important for all political parties and the three main political players in the national capital — the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress — are going the extra mile to show their sensitivity on issues concerning women.
Leaders from the three parties, as also women activists, say that issues concerning women, particularly their safety and education, have moved away from the periphery and are now part of the main political discourse. They say that more and more female voters are taking interest in politics and are making their own choices in casting their ballots, irrespective of the thinking of their family members.
In Delhi, the issue of women’s security has added significance in view of the increasing incidents of crime against them. The grisly gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old physiotherapist in Dec 2013 had forced the people to come out on the streets.
The city reported 1,441 rapes in 2013, according to National Crime Record Bureau data. The AAP and the BJP, considered the main contenders in the upcoming polls, are holding a series of meetings to finalise their vision for the capital’s 5.8 million women. The AAP appears to have taken a lead by conducting a dialogue with women last November which, the party says, was preceded by some 300 meetings spread across all of Delhi’s 70 assembly constituencies.
Among the promises made by the AAP, which finished a close second to the BJP in the 2013 assembly polls, were 200,000 public toilets for women, 100 new courts to fast-track rape cases and wi-fi connected CCTV cameras. Former mayor and BJP leader Aarti Mehra termed the scenario a “welcome change.”