‘Winnability a factor’: Shashi Tharoor on concern over less women in Kerala fray | India News

He was also asked about fellow Congress leader Shama Mohammed’s post on Friday X about the low number of tickets for women candidates.“I have been in favor of greater representation of women for some time,” Tharoor told news agency PTI.The Congress leader, however, listed the possibilities that would determine the distribution of tickets ahead of the polls, which he said would have a “winnability” factor.“And I’m sorry to say, I agree that when women are half of the population, they get only 9.8 percent seats, it’s not fair. But again, those who took these decisions, and I’m not one of them, I’m not part of the process of selecting the candidates, but I can only say that those who did it definitely took all the factors into consideration and they claimed that they took into account the guidelines and they won. A major thing,” Tharoor said.He also said that once women’s reservation comes into effect, it will provide “a fair chance to more hard-working women leaders”.“But when women’s reservation comes, I think it will end this debate and we will see a fair chance for more hard-working women leaders,” she added.Congress leader Shama Mohammad on Friday expressed concern over the low representation of women in the party’s candidate list, urging Rahul Gandhi to intervene.In a post on X, Mohammad said that out of 92 tickets, only nine were allotted to women. She also pointed to the Lok Sabha elections, where Kerala fielded only one woman out of 16 candidates.His comments came a day after the Congress finalized its candidate. Leader of Opposition VD Sathisan said the party has locked in 95 nominees who are contesting. “We had earlier announced 55 candidates and have now finalized the remaining 40. The selection process is complete, and we will now go into campaign mode,” he said.Kerala will go to polls in a single phase on April 9, with counting scheduled on May 4.