On October 31st, 2003, the first Women's Party of India was formed. The party, founded by activist Varsha Kale, this party contested 9 seats in the Maharastra State Elections.

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While it did not win any seats, the formation of such a party and its participation in the electoral process is itself a big step.

This party decided on a ‘hand with bangles’ as its election symbol and is hopeful that the EC will allot it since no political party has claimed it from the list of symbols on offer by the EC. Asked about the possible criticism the party may receive from feminist organisations for choosing such a symbol (feminists in India consider it a sign of weakness), Avisha Kulkarni, Secretary of WPI, said their party had intentionally kept away from the feminist sentiment.
“We could easily have named our party as Feminist Party, but we chose not to. Feminism, we believe, is an ideology that looks at a woman as a female species. We want to look at her as a woman,” she says.
WPI’s chief agenda is what they call the womanisation of politics. Kale and her associates believe that their brand of “politics of caring and sharing” is increasingly relevant in the world of “male” politics of war and terror. “Our sole objective is to increase women’s participation in the decision-making process of this country. Everyone knows what has happened to the reservations bill. Even if it is passed, at 33 per cent, women will still remain a minority. We want to bring the participation to 50 per cent, matching our numbers in the population,” she says.
WPI claims to have registered 27,000 members from the interiors of Maharashtra and plans an extensive membership drive in Pune and Mumbai in the coming weeks.
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Now that the elections are over, the longetivity of the party and the seriousness of its intent will depend on its ability to strengthen its grassroots membership. While many critics do not see this as a serious effort and others are unsure of its longetivity, its members are focused and know what they are doing. olitical analysts like Nikhil Wagle, editor of the Marathi eveninger, Mahanagar, feel Kale and her party are merely publicity-mongers who do not possess a serious political or ideological agenda. “In a democracy, every citizen has a constitutional right to start a political party. But, I do not believe that women’s issues can be resolved by women alone. Women’s problems are human rights-related and you need men as well as women to resolve them,” says Wagle, who is a strong supporter of the Women’s Reservation Bill.

Veteran Janata Dal leader Mrinal Gore dismisses the WPI as a wasted initiative. “It won’t achieve anything,” she says. Gore argues that greater representation to women in the political process and decision-making is the need of the hour, but it cannot be achieved by segregating wom- en as a separate political entity.
“You can’t say you will only work for women’s issues. As a political representative, you have to handle all issues irrespective of gender. In fact, an all-woman party will end up hampering the process of empowerment,” says Gore, a former MLA.
Kale and her friends have heard comments like these before, but that has not dampened their spirits. They argue that women’s parties have existed in countries like the Philippines, Turkey and Australia (WPI shares uncanny similarities with the Australian Women’s Party which has been fighting for equal representation for men and women in Parliament) and seek to highlight the fact that WPI is the world’s ninth all-woman party. “I believe there have been attempts to float a women’s party before in Bihar, Rajasthan and West Bengal, but they failed to sustain the effort because they were offshoots of main political parties,” she says. One of the founding members, Padma Nikam, a former hawker, now a successful entrepreneur selling home food, and the joint secretary of the party says, “The spark will start a forest fire. Just wait and see”.