The equations at the coming polls have simply made this evident. On May 10, the fate of 126 seats will be decided. The Congress, contesting all the seats, has most women nominees on its list at 15. Next comes the AGP at five. But the bubble bursts on a closer look.
Most nominated women are widows of prominent leaders.
Alaka Desai Sarma, widow of AGP general-secretary Nagen Sarma, is one of the nominees. The party chose her at a by-poll last year after the ULFA assassinated her husband. The AGP has now renominated her. Ajanta Neog, wife of former Golaghat MLA and Cooperation minister Nagen Neog, will contest from her late husband's seat. Nagen died in an ambush a day after polling for the 1996 Assembly elections wound up.