At a Mahila Congress seminar held in Kota on October 25, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had all the women attendees rooting for him when he said the party will push for half the chief ministers in states under its governance to be women.

Just four days down the lane, his rhetoric seems hollow.

The Rajasthan unit of the party declared a jumbo 123-member Congress committee for Sikar district on Tuesday. Of which, only seven are women. The committee headed by PS Jat has on board an organisation general secretary, 26 vice presidents, 34 general secretaries, 37 secretaries, 21 co-secretaries, two spokespersons and one treasurer will steer the district in the December polls.

When asked why the Pradesh Congress failed to include more women representatives, vice-president Mumtaz Masih says, "The names were forwarded by the district president, which we have approved. It is their decision to include members, not ours."

While canvassing in Rajasthan, Gandhi has been advocating better participation of women in elections and governance. At a rally in Dungarpur's Sagwara constituency, he said he wanted to see more women candidates in elections, else he would not approve the list for the upcoming polls.

This is a far cry from the actual ticket distribution: In the last two Assembly elections held in 2008 and 2013, women candidates fielded for the 200-seat Assembly by Congress had just 15 per cent of the total tickets distributed.In 2008, the BJP gave tickets to 32 women candidates out of the 193 it fielded. In contrast, the Congress allotted tickets to only 23 women out of its 200 candidates. In 2013, Congress maintained a status quo in selection of women candidates – it handed out 24 tickets to them, while the BJP gave away tickets to 26 women from its 200 seats.

Applicant numbers are also few and far in between. Over the past three months, nearly 3,000 resumes have been received by Leader of Opposition Rameshwar Dudi, expressing interest in contesting the upcoming polls. Only 110 of them are women aspirants. But the low number of female applicants isn't a deterrent to the women members of the party. "We have faith in Rahul-ji. His stress on women representation will materialize and women will get handsome representation in the polls," says Sonakshi Vashistha, Rajasthan Mahila Congress general secretary.