My doctoral research/dissertation develops a theory on formal and informal candidate-selection methods and criteria devised by the two major national political parties i.e., the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) based on the national elections held in the past two decades to explain the persistent underrepresentation of women candidates in India. It engages in a systematic intra-party and inter-party level of analysis among candidates nominated to contest national elections from both general and reserved seats. It focuses on investigating what informal attributes of women candidates matter for their selection as candidates to both general and reserved seats to contest national elections in the major parties. It explains why the formal candidate selection procedures and informal selection criteria in the dominant two-party system limits the pool and opportunities for women candidates nominated and elected to the directly elected Lok Sabha (lower house of the national parliament) in India.
Netina Tan, PhD, (Associate Professor, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada)
Michelle L. Dion (Professor, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada)
Peter Graefe (Associate Professor, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada)
CIRCLE will help me build a academic and non-academic network among the South Asian diaspora and will also enhance my future research endeavors. I expect to engage with other scholars researching on the region across all relevant disciplines both in the region and beyond.