Maharashtra Assembly elections: Section of Pune’s transgender community boycotts polls

Goilkar said they person been warring for reservation, but nary 1 is acceptable to sermon the issue. “We person decided to boycott the polls for this,” she said.

The Pune territory has 805 transgender voters but Goilkar said the fig would beryllium overmuch more. “There are galore who person not registered themselves arsenic transgenders. Some are successful the closet but are progressive successful the society. Our number puts the fig of transgenders successful Pune metropolis astatine good implicit 10,000. It is unfortunate that nary of the governmental parties oregon candidates adjacent came to conscionable america oregon effort to rise our issues,” she said.

While Shameebha Patil is the lone transgender candidate successful the state, Goilkar said the assemblage has been neglected by the strategy and the politicians.

Patil, the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) campaigner from the Raver constituency successful the Jalgaon district, had faced sexist comments from her opponents.

Voting is taking spot successful 21 of the 288 seats of the Maharashtra Assembly successful Pune. The ruling Mahayuti — Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, the BJP and Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party — and the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, which is simply a conjugation of Sharad Pawar’s NCP, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT), and the Congress, are warring retired the bitter canvass conflict successful the state.