With the mercury dipping in the hill state of Himachal Pradesh , men in the capital Shimla are donning the traditional Kullu caps. These caps don’t just give protection from the cold. They are also a symbol of political affiliation. While a maroon flap in the front represents the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP ), green is the colour sported by Congress leaders and supporters.The caps are part of the traditional headwear of men. Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh , who prefers green, may have been the first to give the cap a political twist.So where does that leave the women in Himachal politics? Not on centre stage, for sure.The number of women contesting for the 68-member legislative assembly is just 19. Three are on Congress tickets: Asha Kumari from Dalhousie, Champa Thakur from Mandi and Viplove Thakur from Dehra. The BJP has done better with six: Indu Goswami (Palampur), Kamlesh Kumari (Bhoranj), Reeta Devi (Indora), Sarveen Choudhary (Shahpur), Shashi Bala (Rohru) and Vijay Jyoti (Kasumpti) are the party’s women candidates. Of the rest, two are from the Lok Gathbandhan Party, which is fighting elections for the first time, three are independent candidates, another three are fighting on BSP tickets, and there’s one woman candidate each from the Swabhiman Party and the Rashtriya Azad Manch.Bina Thakur, who was seen by many as a likely BJP candidate from one of the constituencies in Shimla district, is a tad disappointed in not getting the nod. But she isn’t complaining anymore. “Women have been working hard in various positions at the local level. Unfortunately, only six could be given tickets to contest the elections despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of giving more tickets to women candidates,” she says.Thakur is hopeful that going forward more women will get the opportunity to fight elections to the assembly and Parliament from Himachal. While economic empowerment of women and support to those who are trying to set up entrepreneurial ventures such as pickle-making units is important to the party’s local leadership, she feels that women’s safety has emerged as a big issue for the November 9 elections.The brutal gangrape and murder of a 16-year-old schoolgirl, from a village in the apple-growing Kotkhai belt, in July has cast a shadow on the polls. The “Gudiya” case — as people began to refer to it — turned murkier with the death of one of the accused in police lock-up. With the culprits still absconding, the case is now with the CBI.In its pre-election vision document for Himachal Pradesh, the BJP has promised Gudiya Helpline, a 24×7 emergency police service and police stations exclusively for women. “The Gudiya case has left us all shocked since we generally consider our state to be safe and peaceful. Policies addressing women’s safety and security are essential, what with girls from far-flung villages often having to walk through forests to reach schools and colleges,” Bina Thakur said.For the family of the girl, more than three months on, the horror of the loss hasn’t eased. That no justice has been done yet only compounds the grief and anger. The girl’s mother spoke to ET Magazine on phone: “Our only hope now is that the CBI will finish its investigations and nab the culprits who should be hanged for what they did to my daughter. Now, with a new government set to take over, there is uncertainty about the case.” The nightmare for her has not ended since she lost her daughter who was on her way back from school; now her son, who usually accompanied his sister to school, refuses to go alone. “We live in fear these days and feel insecure even when summoned by CBI officials for questioning, having to undertake a two-hour journey to Shimla town by public transport.”Even when women’s issues are important, why have so few women been given tickets to fight elections? Surveys carried out by the BJP focused on the “winnability” of candidates, explains Prem Kumar Dhumal, the chief ministerial candidate of the party who served as CM for two terms in the past. The clincher for the BJP is that it has outdone its bitter rival on this front. “We have done better than the Congress by fielding six women. The party that runs the government has only three.”Ranjeet Ranjan, Congress MP and secretary in-charge of the Himachal Pradesh elections , has been handling the party’s affairs in the state for the last three months. She concedes that it is unfortunate that only a few women could be given tickets. That same argument of “winnability” surfaces. “Our focus has been on finding the best candidates for each constituency, those who are connected with the grassroots and are accepted locally. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find many women to fit these roles and couldn’t fix a quota. But, in future, we have to work harder to rope in more women as candidates for parliamentary and assembly seats.”Sunita Verma is a housewife in the tiny village of Gehni in the Shimla (Rural) constituency, with around 700 voters. She has been an active member of the panchayat and a Congress member for the last three years. “For us the issues are very local and we require support from the state government for growing vegetables and horticulture, which provide livelihoods for most families here,” says Verma, who has been busy organising and attending political meetings and rallies over the last few days.When talking to women, she finds that the Gudiya case is of concern for many of them. “Such incidents never happened in our state before and we, members of the Congress Mahila Mandal, used to feel very safe while travelling around for our political work. But now we are concerned.” There were protests by local people demanding justice for the schoolgirl in Gehni, too.About 30 km away, at Sunni tehsil, which has a larger electorate of over 3,500, Champa Devi, a member of the BJP Mahila Morcha, rues that no woman was given a party ticket from her constituency, Shimla (Rural). “There are a lot of issues that the women of the region need to raise with the government such as lack of good teachers for our children at government schools, lack of specialised medical services, water shortage and lack of economic support for animal husbandry projects,” she says.Asha Kumari, Congress general secretary and a five-time MLA from Dalhousie who is contesting again from the same seat, feels that the rough and tumble of electoral politics is a hindrance for many women. “I have been involved in elections for over three decades and know how arduous it is. Many women shy away from it because it is not easy, they would rather work for social uplift through NGOs,” says Asha Kumari from her constituency where she is campaigning for her eighth election. But she also finds more women coming out for election meetings and rallies and having one-on-one conversations with candidates and party leaders to discuss their problems.“In the villages of Himachal, election meetings are a big event; they are almost like a festival for local women. I see them speaking up about issues such as rise in the prices of LPG and other essential commodities, about the fraud around zero-balance bank accounts and the impact of GST.”The Congress government and leadership, according to her, has worked hard towards making education accessible to the girl child in Himachal and providing more employment for young women in the state. “From building schools and colleges in remote areas to providing more openings for government jobs, our government has been doing a lot for women’s empowerment. Women are now joining government services as junior engineers, and more and more are joining medical colleges,” she said.What remains to be seen now is if women can make an adequate impact as candidates, and also as voters in determining the winners.