Swaraj India To Field 33% Women, 33% Youth In Haryana Polls

Swaraj India party chief Yogendra Yadav is all set to contest from all 90 seats in Haryana assembly polls as a “viable alternative” to the ruling BJP, he said on Thursday. He has also decided to field at least 33% women candidates and 33% young candidates for the assembly polls which are slated to happen in October this year.

“We are going to focus on five issues – agrarian distress, remunerative prices to the farmers, unemployment relief for educated unemployed youth and we want a law which would ensure no liquor vend can be opened unless women of that gram sabha approve of it,” the psephologist-turned-political leader said, Indian Express reported. He has also included benefits for the workers working in the unorganised sector, for whom the party promises to ensure better wages and the more secure better quality environment. Yadav claimed that his party wants to “change the grammar and established practices” of the state’s politics.

“All other parties are here for doing the cultivation of power. Swaraj India is here to do the cultivation of truth. We are here not to cut the harvests of five years but to sow seeds for the upcoming five years. In this state, the entire politics is centred on caste, Jats versus non-Jats. We stand in resolute opposition of this; we are saying we want to bring all the 36 communities together,” Yadav said.

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On countering BJP’s stronghold in Haryana after it won all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana and aims to win 75 plus seats in the state in assembly polls, Yadav said, “Everyone is saying this is the worst time to get into elections. But we think this is the best time because this is when people are looking for an alternative, a viable alternative which we will provide. There is a complete vacuum in Haryana, every day you hear of MLAs running away to BJP, every other day parties are disintegrating, Congress is fighting more against each other.”

“We are going to focus on five issues – agrarian distress, remunerative prices to the farmers, unemployment relief for educated unemployed youth and we want a law which would ensure no liquor vend can be opened unless women of that gram sabha approve of it,”

“If you look at parole plea filed by jailed Dera Sacha Sauda chief and reactions from political leaders of the ruling and most opposition parties on this, it shows the bankruptcy of Haryana politics, not a single opposition party has the guts to oppose Baba’s parole. This shows the bankruptcy. And this is where we will provide a viable alternative,” he added.

Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik started the trend for fielding 33% women candidates during Lok Sabha elections. His party Biju Janta Dal fielded seven women candidates out of 21 total candidates of whom five of his female candidates became MPs. After him, Mamata Banerjee’s All India Trinamool Congress also fielded around 40% women candidates including several political greenhorns like Mimi Chakraborty, Nusrat Jahan, etc.

Picture credit- India TV

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