Only four women candidates in fray in Nagaland, a state that has never seen a woman MLA

Over 13 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the February 27 elections, and all eyes will be on the four women candidates

In poll-bound Nagaland, where nearly half of registered voters (49.79 per cent) are women, only four out of 184 candidates in the fray this time are women.

Since it was established in 1963, the state of Nagaland has seen 14 Assembly elections — but never a woman MLA. This puts the four women contenders in the Nagaland Assembly polls in the spotlight.

The four women candidates are Hekani Jakhalu of NDPP from the Dimapur-III seat, Rosy Thomson of Congress in Tening, Salhoutuonuo Kruse of NDPP in Western Angami and Kahuli Sema of BJP in Atoizu.

Read | Nagaland: 2-time BJP MLA seeks win amid anti-incumbency

Contesting on a BJP ticket from Atoizu, 57-year-old Sema entered politics in 2022 after taking voluntary retirement as Engineer-in-Chief of the Public Works Department. As per a Nagaland Public Works Department (NPWD) press release, Sema was the 'first woman Engineer-in-Chief among the Sumi community and the second within the Nagas'.

Meanwhile, Jakhalu, contesting from the Dimapur-III constituency on an NDPP ticket is a US-educated lawyer and social entrepreneur. The 48-year-old founded YouthNet, a non-profit aimed at helping youth acquire education and develop life skills, and is a ‘Nari Shakti Puraskar’ awardee.

NDPP candidate from Western Angami, Kruse (56) is a social worker with over 24 years of experience working with various NGOs and civil society organisations. Thomson (58), another social worker, who is contesting on a Congress ticket from Tening has been in politics and a Congress party worker since the 1980s.

The prospects of these women are bright and if elected, they would make history as the first set of women legislators to set foot inside the Nagaland Legislative Assembly.

A total of 13,16,064 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the February 27 elections, and all eyes will be on these four women. Will the state get its first lady legislator next month? Only time will tell.

Polling is scheduled on February 27 and votes will be counted on March 2.

Why women have never been elected in Nagaland

As per a report in The Indian Express, for women looking to contest in the Nagaland Assembly elections, the biggest challenge is getting a ticket from a political party.

In 2017, when the state government tried to enforce a 33 per cent women's reservation in urban local body elections, there were violent protests that resulted in two deaths. The Nagaland government declared in April 2022 that it was prepared to put the 33 per cent reservation into effect. The local body polls are yet to take place.

Last month, the Naga Mothers’ Association (NMA) issued an appeal to political parties to field women candidates. Speaking to the publication, Rosemary Dzuvichu, an advisor to the NMA stated that the main problem is that political parties have not supported women candidates nor nominated them over the years. "Most women who have entered into the fray have either been Independents or have been last-minute adjustments by parties, in a non-serious way… The question has always been that of ‘winnability’, which has been defined by our men, not by us,” she said.