Prabha Rau, Margaret Alva and Smriti ‘Tulsi’ Irani better watch out. The Womanist Party of India (WPI), formed on October 31, 2003, has been offered registration by the Election Commission.

This party, the first of its kind in India exclusively for women, will be testing the waters in the coming Maharashtra Assembly polls.

“We plan to contest from all 288 constituencies in Maharashtra. We do not expect much as we have very little time on our hands. But we will surely make an impact,” says Avisha Kulkarni, general secretary of the WPI.

The party, founded by activist Varsha Kale, has 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), Kulkarni 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.

“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.