Prepare woman aspirants for 2028 council poll: DCM to Women's Congress

Agencies

Bengaluru: Pointing out that 74 of the 224 seats would be reserved for women in the 2028 Assembly elections if women's reservation bill took effect, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar today called upon Women's Congress to get women candidates ready. Speaking at the Women's Day event organised at the KPCC Bharat Jodo Bhawan, he said, "Nehru used to say that we need to make women aware if general public needs to be made aware. If a woman is empowered, a family is empowered and if a family is empowered a society is empowered. The guarantee schemes are empowering women in the state." "When I took over as the President of the KPCC five years ago, I had said that our future can be realised only with the help of youth and women.

We made sure that our manifesto put women at the heart of our development. When our government made committees for implementation of the guarantee schemes, the Opposition criticised. We have formed these committees to ensure it is delivered to the people. The BJP criticised us for the guarantee schemes but they are adopting Karnataka model in their states as well." "Women are revered in our society. We call our language mother tongue, deities of our land are Goddesses, we refer to Earth as Mother Earth. Women have been prioritised in our society at every stage," he added.

"It is important that we ask ourselves what we are contributing to the party. I have been saying this from the time Rani Satish was the President of Women's Congress, I am not happy with the Women's wing, it has not performed up to the mark. There are opportunities in front of you if you would like to achieve something," he said.

Director's post if you enrol 50 members for the party: "We will ensure that the party workers who enroll at least 50 women as party members from among the Gruhalakshmi beneficiaries are rewarded with a directorship at the taluk level. Currently, we are giving tickets to 10-12 women. Who will get the other women's candidates ready? We will need about 74 of them.

It doesnt matter if we make our daughters and sisters candidates, we need to make women from the grassroots to contest," he said. “A sappling doesn't give us fruits from the first day, it needs time. Work for the party selflessly, results will come automatically. Where there is will there is a way. A great example of this is our leader Sonia Gandhi. She lost her husband and mother in law for the nation. She took reins of the party in difficult times and led it well. She refused power when she could have become the PM of the country," he recalled.

“You all need to keep personal thoughts aside and think from the party perspective. Everyone wants to directly become an MLA or an MP. Sowmya Reddy did not desire to become the Mahila Congress President, I brought her in. You become a big leader only when you create many leaders under you. It will be a problem if you don't get the new generation of leaders ready. Focus on party worship and not idol worship," he advised.

Two years of the government: "The government will complete two years in office on May 20. You all must celebrate this milestone. Organise rangoli competition for the guarantee beneficiaries. We will give away awards for the best rangolis," he said. The DCM and Women and Child Welfare Lakshmi Hebbalkar felicitated Ananya Prasad, frand daughter of Dr G S Shivarudrappa, who sailed solo for 3000 miles, on the occasion.