Hyderabad: The reasons could be different, but three new women faces will surely make the headlines during the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections, which begins on April 19.
Hitherto playing their roles as supportive life-partners of their politician spouses, the three women -- jailed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's wife Sunita Kejriwal, former Jharkhand Chief Minister's wife Kalpana Soren and Sunetra Pawar, wife of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar -- are set for their political debuts.
While Sunita and Kalpana are not officially named as party leaders, their recent rise after their husbands were arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in different cases clearly shows that they are set to take up crucial political roles in their parties and, if need be, in the opposition INDIA bloc.
Both Sunita and Kalpana even met each other in New Delhi recently and addressed a public rally organised by the INDIA bloc against the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal, who is also the national convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
It should not be a surprise if Sunita Kejriwal, a former Indian Revenue Services (IRS) officer and Kalpana Soren will be seen campaigning for the candidates of AAP and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) in the Lok Sabha polls.
Kalpana, who lashed out at the Narendra Modi-led government over misuse of central agencies, married Hemant Soren on February 2, 2006. They have two sons. Kalpana hails from Mayurbhanj in Odisha. Along with engineering, she has also obtained an MBA degree, and runs a school in Jharkhand's capital Ranchi.
After the arrest of Hemant Soren by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Kalpana attended the JMM's 51st Foundation Day program in Giridih on March 4. She is preparing to contest the Gandey assembly by-election in Jharkhand. There is a possibility that if Kalpana Soren contests and wins the Gandey Assembly by-election, she can be made the Jharkhand Chief Minister in place of incumbent Champai Soren.
The second woman that is in focus is Sunita Kejriwal, who met Arvind Kejriwal during a training programme in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, and then the two tied the nuptial knot. Sunita is a 1994-batch IRS officer, while Arvind Kejriwal is a 1995-batch IRS officer.
Sunita opted for voluntary retirement from the Income Tax department in 2016 and her last posting was in the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal in Delhi where she was posted as an Additional Commissioner.
Though Sunita has now taken centre stage, she was seen with Arvind Kejriwal during the India Against Corruption movement or the early days of the AAP. When Arvind Kejriwal had unsuccessfully contested against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the Varanasi constituency in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Sunita had aided her husband by taking leave.
In fact, after the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections, when AAP swept the polls, Kejriwal dedicated the thumping win to Sunita and publicly acknowledged it. The third woman who will make the headlines in the country and especially Maharashtra is 60-year-old Sunetra Pawar, wife of Ajit Pawar, who rebelled against his uncle and Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) chief and former Union Minister Sharad Pawar.
In all likelihood, Sunetra will be fielded from the Baramati constituency in Pune district as a Nationalist Congress Party candidate. Though her candidate has not been officially declared, her posters have been put up in the constituency.
Sunetra, who is the founder of the Environmental Forum of India, an NGO, will be taking on her kin Supriya Sule, the current MP from Baramati and daughter of Sharad Pawar. Baramati is set to witness a battle among the Pawar family.
Sunetra is also the trustee of the well-known educational institute Vidya Pratishthan. Sunetra and Ajit have two sons. Sunetra has the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. Sunetra has also received the backing of Vijay Shivtare, who comes from the Purandar area and is a staunch opponent of Ajit Pawar.
Sunetra if fielded will continue the legacy of the Pawar family, but it will certainly not be an easy task to take on her father-in-law Sharad Pawar and Supriya Sule in their own den. By fielding Sunetra, the BJP wants to finish the dominance of Sharad Pawar in Baramati, the place from where he was elected as an MLA way back in the 1960s.
