Campaigns

It is 8.30 a.m. on Saturday in the middle class area of Chandra Nagar. Jagruti Pandya, widow of former Gujarat Home Minister Haren Pandya, who was murdered in 2003, is doing a walkabout. She is the Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP) candidate from the posh Ellisbridge constituency, which her late husband represented, and her decision to use this election to focus on the fact that all those charged with her husband’s brutal killing were let off last year, has created a ripple of interest.

Dr Michael Abu Sakara Foster, Presidential Candidate of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) on Wednesday said when elected his government would champion the cause of women in nation building.

He said "politicians must practice what they preach, and walk the talk..., as the CPP has demonstrated with its commitment to gender mainstreaming by electing a woman as the Chairperson of the party.

Kim Sung Joo, who refused an arranged marriage to pursue her fortune selling luxury goods, said electing Park Geun Hye next month as South Korea’s first female president would help destroy its entrenched gender gap.

“If she becomes the top leader in Korea, we’ll break through everything -- glass, concrete,” Kim, 55, a co- chairwoman of Park’s election campaign committee, said in an interview on Nov. 15. “That will equalize men and women in Korean society.”

Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi took to the campaign trail in Himachal Pradesh by exhorting the youth to be more participative in politics.

The young leader also talked about the merits of women in politics, saying states with politicians from the fairer sex were more developed than others.