Express News Service
DIMAPUR: If political parties are able to secure victory for the handful of women candidates in Nagaland, they will script history, and so will the women of the state.
Nagaland attained statehood in 1963 but never before was a woman elected to the state Assembly. The state has 49.79% female voters this election but only four women are contesting among the 183 candidates.
The Christian-majority state, however, has got two women MPs to date. Back in 1977, Rano M Shaiza of the United Democratic Party created history by becoming its first woman MP. She had defeated the then Chief Minister Hokishe Sema of the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections. Almost 45 years later last year, Phangnon Konyak of the BJP was elected to the Rajya Sabha.
It is not that the women in the state have not fought for political representation but the political parties shied away from taking a chance. Until a few years ago, it was not uncommon that the right to vote in villages to be passed on by the villagers to their village chief. But times are changing.
Five women contested the 2018 elections but none of them was successful. Awan Konyak had the best performance among the five. She lost by a margin of 905 votes.
Hekani Jakhalu, Salhoutuonuo Kruse (both from Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party or NDPP), Kahuli Sema (BJP) and Rosy Thomson (Congress) are the four women contesting this election.
Jakhalu is contesting from Dimapur-III, Kruse from Western Angami, Sema from Atoizu and Thomson from Tenzing. The NDPP heads the state’s three-party ruling coalition where the BJP is a major component.
Jakhalu, the US-educated lawyer, is a social entrepreneur. She founded YouthNet, a non-profit organisation, two decades ago to create employment opportunities for the youth of the state. She is now banking on her social outreach to win the elections.
She believes there has been a steady change in the mindset of not just men but also women in Nagaland where male-dominated village councils wield unbridled powers, thanks to customary laws.
“The mindset of women in Nagaland has been that they cannot fight elections against men. Things are now changing,” Jakhalu said.
“People are looking up to me, for they think women can deliver. They are saying they have tasted father’s love. Now, they will taste mother’s love because mother’s love is unconditional,” she added.
Kruse has been in social services for more than two decades while Sema, who took voluntary retirement, served as the engineer-in-chief in the Nagaland public works department.