Kerala polls 2026: Shama Mohamed flags low women representation in Congress; BJP’s Sindhumol calls out party leadership over candidate bias

Congress leader Shama Mohamed has lashed out at the party leadership for overlooking women in the party’s candidate selection for the upcoming Assembly elections in Kerala.

In a post on her Facebook page on Friday, a day after the Congress put out its list of candidates, she said that only nine out of the 92 candidates of the party are women.

“I have been rejected, but not defeated. I request my leader Rahul Gandhi, whom I admire, respect, and adore, to help the Congress women of Kerala. In the Lok Sabha elections of 2024, only one woman was given a ticket out of the 16 persons who contested. If a woman happens to be talented, the situation is dire,” she wrote.

Kochi seat

Although Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) general secretary and two-time councillor Deepthy Mary Varghese had appeared confident that she would be fielded from the Kochi constituency, Ernakulam DCC president Mohammad Shiyas made it into the final list. She had been earlier overlooked for the Kochi Mayor post. However, Ms. Varghese has refused to make her displeasure public and even shared a post in support of Mr. Shiyas on Friday.

The protests from women leaders of the Congress who were denied tickets has been muted this time compared to the last Assembly elections. In 2021, the party’s women’s wing president Lathika Subhash resigned from the post, hurt over the denial of Ettumanur seat to her and shaved her head sitting in front of the Congress office as a mark of protest.

Voices of protest from women leaders are being witnessed in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) too. On Friday, party spokesperson T.P. Sindhumol sent a complaint to the national leadership that she was denied candidature in the Ettumanur seat, which was handed over to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)- ally Twenty20.