Meghalaya has only one woman candidate

SHILLONG: The country's youngest sitting and now outgoing MP from Tura, Agatha Sangma, is the first woman to have represented Meghalaya, which has a matrilineal system of society. Since she "forfeited" her seat in favour of her veteran father, Purno Sangma, who represented Tura for eight consecutive terms, 65-year-old Ivoryna Shylla, an Independent candidate, is now the only woman to have filed nomination for this Lok Sabha election. The lone Rajya Sabha seat for Meghalaya is occupied by Congress leader Wansuk Syiem, the first woman from the state to have been elected to the Upper House. In fact, very few women have come forward or were given tickets this time to contest for either of the two Lower House berths that the state has. "They don't want to take the plunge," said functionaries of national and regional parties.

Shylla, a resident of Laitumkhrah locality, lamented the unwillingness of women leaders to contest elections. "It is because of this that I decided to join the fray," claimed Shylla, who had contested the 1993 assembly polls from the then Laitumkhrah constituency as a BJP candidate. She had lost but she had not given up. The present 60-member Meghalaya legislative assembly has three women legislators - two are ministers of home and urban affairs respectively.