Rahul Gandhi bats for increased female participation in politics, says want 50 per cent women CM

Pushing for his “dream” to see increased women participation in the national politics, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said that he would want to see 50 per cent women chief ministers in the country over the next five to seven years.

Addressing the state level convention of Mahila Congress in poll-bound Rajasthan’s Kota, the Congress president said, “I have taken the decision that I will promote the participation of women in the organisation and at the level of Zila Parishad, Pradhan and then at the level of MLA and MP. After that, I want that in the next 5 to 7 years, half of our chief ministers in the country should be women.”

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The Gandhi scion also slammed the “anti-women” attitude of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological patriarch Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He said that the BJP and the RSS wanted women not to go outside their homes and never involved them in the decision-making process.

“This is the difference between BJP and Congress. BJP and RSS say that women should not be progressive and should not go out of the houses. You will not find a single woman in RSS meetings. They (BJP) have an organisation of women but that organisation does not take decisions and the decision is taken there by the men,” Gandhi said.

Gandhi said that while his role in the Congress party may be more of “judge” but he would like to be the “lawyer” of the women, promoting their role in the organisation. He said that “winnability” may always be the criteria while deciding ticket distribution but women too can win.

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“I want that when I read out the list of leaders at such programmes, at least 30-40 per cent should be of women in every state,” he said, adding that it was not any gift but their right.