New Delhi/Shimla. In the results of the Lok Sabha elections declared on Tuesday, a total of 73 women were elected, while in the 2019 general elections this number was 78. Out of the total women MPs elected to the lower house from across the country, West Bengal is at the forefront with 11 women. A total of 797 women candidates contested the elections, in which BJP fielded the highest number of 69 women and Congress fielded 41 women.
This is the first election after the Women’s Reservation Bill was passed in Parliament. This law provides for reserving one-third of the seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. This law has not been implemented yet. According to the analysis of the Election Commission’s data, this time 30 women candidates of BJP won the Lok Sabha elections, 14 of Congress, 11 of Trinamool Congress, four of Samajwadi Party, three of DMK and two each of Janata Dal (United) and LJP (R).
The 17th Lok Sabha had the highest number of women MPs at 78, which was 14 per cent of the total number. The 16th Lok Sabha had 64 women members while the 15th Lok Sabha had 52. BJP’s Hema Malini, Trinamool’s Mahua Moitra, NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar)’s Supriya Sule and Samajwadi Party’s Dimple Yadav retained their seats in the Lok Sabha elections while candidates like Kangana Ranaut and Misa Bharti grabbed everyone’s attention with their victories. Samajwadi Party’s 25-year-old candidate Priya Saroj from Machhlishahr and 29-year-old Iqra Chaudhary from Kairana seat are among the youngest candidates to win.
Kangana is the fourth woman to be elected to the Lok Sabha from Himachal
Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut is the fourth woman to be elected to the Lok Sabha from Himachal Pradesh and the first woman who does not belong to the former royal family. Kangana, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate, defeated her Congress rival and Rampur princely state descendant Vikramaditya Singh by 74,755 votes from Mandi Lok Sabha constituency. Singh is also the Public Works Minister in the state.
Earlier, the country’s first health minister and Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, who belonged to the then royal family of Kapurthala, was elected to the Lok Sabha from Mandi constituency in 1952.
Chandresh Kumari of the former royal family of Jodhpur won the Kangra seat in 1984. She was married in Himachal. State Congress President and Pratibha Singh, who belongs to the former royal family of Rampur, has won the Mandi seat in 2004, 2013 and 2021. Kangana is the third woman to be elected from the Mandi seat.