Ranchi: Jharkhand has been witnessing a steady rise in the participation of women, both as voters and contestants, in the electoral process. Likewise previous years, all parties have fielded a significant number of women candidates in the upcoming polls.
The Jharkhand assembly elections will be held in two phases, on November 13 and 20, and the results will be declared on November 23.
All parties have fielded women candidates
The NDA has given tickets to 14 women candidates and the INDIA bloc has fielded 12. A party-wise data available till now reveals that BJP has given tickets to at least 12 women, AJSU has fielded two women and Congress has named around six women candidates. Again, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) has fielded five women candidates and RJD has given ticket to one woman.
The saffron party has announced women candidates for Jamtara, Koderma, Gandey, Sindri, Nirsa Jharia Potka, Jamshedpur East, Chaibasa, Jagannathpur and Chhatarpur seats.
In Congress, four sitting women MLAs have been renominated. They are Deepika Pandey Singh from Mahagama, Neeraj Purnima Singh from Jharia, Amba Prasad from Barkagaon and Shilpi Neha Tirkey from Mandar. This apart, the party has also fielded women candidates from Pakur, Ramgarh and Barkagaon.
When it comes to performance, women contestants have always put up a good show. Data from previous elections show that not only has there been a rise in women contestants but also a subsequent increase in the number of winners. Thus, presence of women MLAs has significantly risen over the years.
Rise in women MLAs
Starting with four women MLAs in its first legislative assembly in 2000, the state presently has 10 women MLAs. Jharkhand was formed in 2000 and the first legislative assembly of the state had four women MLAs. The first legislative assembly elections in Jharkhand was held in 2005 and five women MLAs were elected.
In the next assembly elections in 2009, the number of women MLAs increased to eight. In 2014, there were nine women MLAs among the 111 contestants and in 2019 assembly elections, the figure of women lawmakers rose further as 10 candidates won out of 127 contestants.
Women candidates have defeated stalwarts
Women candidates have not only managed to secure victory but made headlines by defeating heavyweight politicians. In the 2014 assembly elections, BJP's Louis Marandi came to the limelight after she defeated former Chief Minister Hemant Soren in Dumka. Similarly, in the bye-election held for the Silli assembly seat, which fell vacant due to Amit Mahato's conviction, Seema Devi successfully defeated AJSU party president Sudesh Mahato.
Political analysts feel that participation of women voters and candidates is important in the country's development and in economic and social transformations.
Lok Sabha polls too witnessed rise in women representation
Coming to the recent Lok Sabha elections, there was a steady rise in number of women candidates in the last 15 years with their representation rising from 7 percent in 2007 to 9.6 percent in 2024. In 2009 Lok Sabha polls, there were 556 women candidates (comprising 7 percent of total contestants) while in 2014 there were 640 (8 percent) and 716 (9 percent) women candidates in 2019. In 2024, there were 797 women candidates in the fray (9.6 percent).
In 2024 Lok Sabha polls, BJP had fielded highest number of women contestants followed by Congress.
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