Women not in the running

lNew Delhi: Women are few and far between in the race to the Lok Sabha. For all the noise made about 33 per cent reservation for women, out of 2,165 candidates fielded by all national and state recognised parties, a mere 177 are women. At 45, the Congress has the highest number. The BJP is a distant second, with 30. Then comes Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party, with 24.

But in terms of percentage, Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party fares better than them all, with 15.63 per cent of its seats allotted to women. The Left follows with 11.59 per cent, the Congress with 10.79 per cent and the BJP with only 8.24 per cent.

Mamata Banerjee’s Nationalist Trinamul Congress has six women among its 33 candidates while Jayalalithaa has only two in the 33 seats her party is fighting. Mayavati fares even worse, with only 4.6 per cent seats for women. But the Mehbooba Mufti-led People’s Democratic Party has managed the “perfect” 33.33 per cent, fielding Mehbooba in one of the three seats it is contesting.

Tulsi parivar

New Delhi: When the good bahu comes, can her parivar be far behind? Not if the campaign managers of Smriti Irani — better known as Tulsi Virani — can have their way. They are trying to rope in the entire Virani parivar to canvass for television’s best bahu. “Tulsi’s mother-in-law in the serial (Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi), son Gautam, J.D. uncle, Mihir Virani, Ansh Gujral, Karan, Nandini, all of them will be here. It is not going to be easy to have them here as all of them have their professional commitments, but we are trying,” Irani’s poll manager said. “The attempt is to have a grand finale of sorts so that we leave an impact on the voters and we are leaving no stone unturned.”

Garbage growl

Coimbatore: Voters in Coimbatore have raised a stink about pile-up of garbage. About one lakh voters have decided to boycott the election, protesting against dumping of garbage on the outskirts of the city. In a memorandum to the district collector and Coimbatore city corporation commissioner, an area environment protection committee alleged that tonnes of garbage was being dumped in the area, causing a health hazard. Repeated appeals and protests have made no impact, it said.

Mixed bag

Chandigarh: Out of 160 candidates in Haryana, 33 are post-graduates, 41 graduates, 10 have passed Class XII, 39 are matriculates, 25 under-matric and 12 are illiterate.