Mahila Empowerment Party to contest Karnataka polls

The All India Mahila Empowerment Party (MEP), launched recently with the slogan of justice for humanity, on Wednesday announced that it will contest next year's assembly elections in Karnataka.

Leading woman entrepreneur Nowhera Shaik, who is heading the party, said it will contest on all 224 seats on its own.

Claiming to have 17 lakh members in various states, she said her party will also contest parliamentary elections across the country in 2019.

Shaik, the CEO and Managing Director of Heera Group of companies, said she and the women working with her in various social activities felt the need for a political platform to fight for gender justice and empowerment of women.

She said 80 per cent of the MEP members will be women, irrespective of their religion or caste and the party plans to constitute 700 district committees soon.

The party will fight for passage of a long-pending bill by the Parliament to provide 33 per cent reservation for women in legislative bodies. She said the bill could not be passed for last 18 years as the mainstream political parties were not "sincere".

Shaik believes quota in legislative bodies was the only way for real empowerment of women, who constitute more than 50 per cent of India's population but are victims of injustice in all spheres of life.

"People always complain that our politics is dirty but good people don't come forward and join it. It's time that all right-thinking people join politics and clean it of its dirt," she said.

--IANS

ms/him/vd