It is rare and perhaps significant to see Shimla, the summer capital of the erstwhile 'British Raj', seeing the rise of women to power, to govern the affairs of Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC), one of India's oldest civic bodies.
Though, the corporation often had women, alternatively from Congress and BJP, as its Mayor, this time the 34-member House is going to look much different.
There is a record number of women, fielded by both parties for the first time in the recent history of the SMC, which goes to the polls on May 2 to elect a new body, apart from the city Mayor and Deputy Mayor.
Even as 50 per cent of seats i.e. 17 out of 34 are reserved for women, as per the legislative mandate of the corporation, the parties have gone beyond the fixed numbers to field women faces.
The opposition BJP has fielded 24—most of them new faces and highly educated women including doctors and half a dozen women entrepreneurs and orchardists; the Congress is trying its luck fielding 18 women. They are also having outstanding career backgrounds as graduates and post-graduates, apart from a few housewives also have stepped out to make their voices heard and carve-out roles in the decision-making process at the level of the civic body.
"We have a doctor Sapna Kashyap contesting from Annandale ward, Rachna Jhina Sharma, an IT professional and social activist from Kasumpti and Kiran Bawa, a senior most councillor from Boileauganj," says Karan Nadda, BJP media in-charge.
The elections to the capital’s urban entity, currently under an administrator, were being held at least eight months after the term of the earlier House and City Mayor, expired in June 2022.
The BJP, which was in power –both in the state and Municipal Corporation, did not hold the elections fearing a wipe-out in the civic body that could have serious implications on its poll prospects in the 2022 assembly poll.
However, after the Congress returned to power, the process of holding elections for Shimla Municipal Corporation got revived.
The Congress is making a determined bid to get its hold over the prestigious civic body, after more than 10 years as earlier two terms were ruled by the CPM—which had its Mayor Sanjay Chauhan and Deputy Mayor Tikender Singh Panwar (2012-2017) and thereafter BJP gained its supremacy in 2017 as the party was already heading for the power in the state to replace the Congress.
At that time the elections were held on a non-party basis. The BJP-backed candidates in the 17 wards had to cobble their majority by taking the support of a party rebel -Rakesh Sharma. The Congress had won only 12 wards in the 34–member House.
The BJP’s first woman mayor was Kusum Sadret, who later got replaced by Satya Koundal. Earlier Congress mayors were Jeny Prem, a Dalit, and Madhu Sood.
Asked how he looks at the role of women, shaping up in Shimla, Harish Janartha, Congress MLA from the town said, “It’s a great opportunity coming to the women, who are educated, competent and quite aware about the issues of the town. I think this is a great change happening when the women will get the opportunity to decide what the people of Shimla need and how best they can give solutions to the issues. The Congress is heading for a comfortable victory.”
Expressing confidence that the BJP will retain the civic body, Suresh Bhardwaj, a former Shimla MLA and minister for urban development said, “The BJP had executed major infrastructure projects in Shimla, prominent among these are Rs 1,813 crore water supply scheme, built a new traffic tunnel, four lifts, seven flyways, and two sub-ways and started work on two escalators."
