Congress leader Shashi Tharoor (file photo)

New Delhi: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor On Friday, when fellow colleague Shama Mohammed was asked about the complaint about small number of tickets being allotted to women candidates for the Kerala Assembly elections, she strongly supported greater representation of women in the elections.Acknowledging the lack of representation of women in proportion to the population, the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha MP highlighted the need for women’s reservation.She was also asked about fellow Congress leader Shama Mohammed’s post on Friday on giving fewer tickets to women candidates.Tharoor told news agency PTI, “I have been in favor of greater representation of women for some time now.”However, the Congress leader listed out the possibilities that would determine ticket distribution ahead of the elections, one of which he said would be the “winnability” factor.Tharoor said, “And I am sorry to say, I agree that when women are half the population, they get only 9.8 per cent of the seats, it is not fair. But then, the people who took these decisions, and I am not one of them, I am not a part of the selection process of the candidates, but all I can say is that those who did that must have taken into account all the factors. And their claim is that ultimately they were guided by the ability to win and that is a major thing.”She further said that once women’s reservation is implemented, it will provide “fair opportunities to more hardworking women leaders”.“But when women’s reservation comes, I think these debates will end and we will see more hardworking women leaders getting fair opportunities,” she said.Congress leader Shama Mohammed on Friday expressed concern over the low representation of women in the party’s candidate list and urged Rahul Gandhi to intervene.In a post on Twitter, Mohammed said that out of 92 tickets, only nine were allotted to women. He also pointed to the Lok Sabha elections, where only one woman was fielded among 16 candidates in Kerala. Appealing to Rahul Gandhi to support women leaders in the state unit, he wrote, “Refused but not defeated.”His comments come a day after the Congress finalized its candidates. Opposition leader VD Satheesan said the party has fielded all its 95 candidates. “We had earlier announced 55 candidates and have now finalized the remaining 40. The selection process is complete, and we will now move into campaign mode,” he said.Kerala will go to polls in a single phase on April 9 and counting of votes will take place on May 4.