Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru

Mangaluru, Aug 25: In a bizarre case, a political party in Mangaluru still prefers to identify its women candidates through the identity of their male relatives.

The Socialist Democratic Party of India (SDPI) has fielded nine candidates to contest in the upcoming Ullal City Municipality Council election. Of the nine, four seats are reserved for women candidates. Though the party fielded four women – Rukhiya Banu from Kotepura ward, Shehnaz Akram Hasan from Ullal Kodi, Kamarunnisa Nizam from Melangadi and Zarina Babu Rauf from Halekote ward, the publicity material does not carry their picture. Instead, the photographs of their spouse or male family members have been used to identify the women.

The publicity material shows two blocks meant for pictures. Wherever a woman is contesting, the block meant to showcase the candidate’s picture is kept empty. Instead, there is a separate block in the side which showcases the picture of the woman candidate’s male family member.

A total of 250 candidates are contesting in the Urban Local Body (ULB) elections in Dakshina Kannada. The polls are scheduled to be held on August 31. In Ullal CMC, there are 31 wards and 102 candidates in fray. In Bantwal TMC there are 27 wards and 71 candidates and in Puttur CMC there are 31 wards and 77 candidates in fray.

In Ullal CMC there are 43 polling booths of which 18 are hypersensitive and 11 are sensitive booths.