Maniben Patel (L) and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (image courtesy: Wikipedia)

Nowadays, almost every newly elected politician celebrates their first big win by buying a new car. This was not always the case, certainly not when Maniben Patel—the first woman MP from Gujarat and the daughter of freedom fighter and former deputy prime minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel—served the people.

Following her father’s death in 1950, Maniben lived in a simple house in Ahmedabad’s Pritamnagar area. According to media reports of the time, Maniben—the daughter of India’s first deputy prime minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel—took an autorickshaw to visit the Congress offices in the Bhadra-Lal Darwaja area of Ahmedabad every day. 

More remarkable than her mode of transport is that Maniben represented three separate parties during her Parliament tenures. Even more extraordinary is that she remains the only woman to have represented the state in both houses of Parliament.

Maniben first took her seat in the Lok Sabha following the very first elections in newly independent India. As the Congress candidate from Kera-Dakshin (today’s Anand seat) in the Lok Sabha elections of 1951, she garnered 1,46,223 votes to beat independent candidate Patel Lallubhai Desaibhai (86,925 votes).  

While she lost the 1962 Lok Sabha elections to Narendrasinh Ranjithsinh Mahida of Swatantra Party, she nevertheless served in the Rajya Sabha from 1964 to 1970.

When the Indian National Congress split in 1969, following the expulsion of Indira Gandhi, Maniben chose to stay behind with what would come to be known as Congress (O), or  Indian National Congress (Organisation). 

In 1973, she was elected to Lok Sabha from Sabarkantha on a Congress (O) ticket, after defeating Shantubhai Patel of the Congress party. 

By 1977, she had switched parties and, as Janata Party candidate, defeated Congress (O) candidate Natvarlal Amratlal Patel, to claim the Mehsana Lok Sabha seat.  

Even as we remember Maniben and her victories, it must be pointed out that women’s empowerment seems to have fallen by the wayside ahead of the Lok Sabha elections 2024.

The BJP has fielded Shobhna Baraiya from Sabarkantha, Nimuben Bambhania from Bhavnagar, and Dr Rekhaben Chaudhary from Banaskantha, while the Congress has given tickets to Dr Prabhaben Taviyad (Dahod),  Geniben Thakor (Banaskantha) and Jeni Thummar (Amreli).  

That this is the entirety of the women being fielded by the two largest parties contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Gujarat raises the issue of women’s representation on the candidate lists.

Image courtesy (Maniben Patel): Photo Division, Govt. of India, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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