Women may be contesting the municipal council elections in Rupnagar district in record numbers, but on the campaign trail, it is often their husbands who are taking charge of the microphones, strategy meetings and public outreach.
With reservation for women and strategic ticket distribution by political parties reshaping the electoral landscape, female candidates now outnumber men in the district’s municipal council elections. Across the five municipal councils where polling is being held, 171 women candidates are in the fray compared to 150 men.
Yet, from street-corner meetings and door-to-door campaigns to noisy election processions, a curious political reality is unfolding, while wives are officially contesting, husbands and sons are frequently leading the campaigns.
Election banners across wards tell their own story.
The woman candidate’s photograph often appears modestly in one corner, while a much larger image of her husband dominates the poster, arms folded and projecting the image of a local strongman or political operator.
In some areas, residents joke that the husbands appear to be the “real candidates”.
“Madam’s name is on the ballot, but sahib’s voice is on every loudspeaker,” quipped a tea vendor in Ropar town as a campaign convoy rolled through the locality.
Husbands emerge as ‘shadow candidates’
The trend is especially visible in cases where influential government employees, barred from contesting elections themselves, have fielded their wives instead.
Though the women are technically the candidates, the husbands are often managing campaign strategy, voter outreach, local negotiations and public meetings.
During door-to-door visits, it is frequently the husbands who passionately discuss development issues such as sanitation, drainage, roads and civic infrastructure, while the women candidates smile, greet voters and occasionally step in briefly.
In one locality, a voter jokingly interrupted a campaign speech to ask: “After elections, whom do we call for work, councillor madam or councillor husband?”
Political observers say the phenomenon reflects the complex transition taking place in Indian society, where women’s participation in politics is growing rapidly but family power structures remain largely male dominated.
Between empowerment and tradition
The irony is hard to ignore. While women empowerment is celebrated through government campaigns and political rhetoric, many local elections still resemble family-run political partnerships where husbands double up as campaign managers, spokespersons and unofficial candidates.
At the same time, several women candidates are gradually beginning to carve out independent political identities.
In towns such as Morinda, Nangal and Anandpur Sahib, a number of women candidates have actively addressed public meetings themselves, speaking on issues ranging from garbage disposal and water supply to stray cattle and street lighting.
Younger women candidates, in particular, appear more confident and comfortable in public life compared to earlier generations.
Still, on much of the campaign trail in Ropar district, scenes continue to blur the line between women’s political empowerment and male political control.
At several campaign offices, party workers can be seen surrounding husbands for instructions while the actual candidates sit quietly nearby. Elsewhere, campaign slogans praising “dynamic leadership” are delivered entirely by male relatives standing beneath giant posters of women candidates.
For now, the municipal elections in Ropar district offer a striking snapshot of grassroots democracy in transition, where women are entering politics in large numbers, but many men are still reluctant to surrender the microphone.