Women in Electoral Politics A Case Study of Women's Political Participation in Maharashtra Mrs. Minal Mhatre Research Fellow Centre for the Study of Society and Secularism Santacruz-East, Mumbai-400 055 January 2009 1 Women in Electoral Politics : A Case Study of Women's Political Participation in Maharashtra by Mrs. Minal Mhatre First Published : June 2009 Published by Centre for the Study of Society & Secularism Silver Star, 602/603, 6th Floor, Near Santacruz Station, Prabhat Colony, Santacruz (E) Mumbai 400 055 Tel. +91 22 2610 2089 +91 22 2614 9668 +91 22 2613 5098 Fax +91 22 2610 0712 Email
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[email protected] 2 Women in Electoral Politics ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project was carried out as part of the Heinrich Boll Foundation grant to the Centre for the Study of Society and Secu- larism. I wish to gratefully acknowledge the support of the Heinrich Boll Foundation. I would like to thank Dr Asghar Ali Engineer, Chairman, Centre for the Study of Society and Secularism for entrusting this project to me and for his encouragement from time to time. I am grateful to Mrs. Mrinal Gore, Mrs. Kamal Desai, Dr. (Mrs.) Neelam Gore and Mr Harischandra Patil, past and present members of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for sparing their valuable time and talking to me on issues relating to women’s representation in politics. Finally, I would not have been able to complete this project without the guidance of Dr (Mrs.) Vasundhara Mohan, Director (Research) of the Centre.