74 Women Elected To 18th Lok Sabha, Lower Than 2019

NEW DELHI: A total of 74 women have won the Lok Sabha elections, a slight dip from 78 elected in 2019. Of the total women MPs elected to the Lower House from across the country, West Bengal is leading with 11 female MPs. A total of 797 women candidates had contested the elections with the BJP fielding the maximum at 69 followed by the Congress at 41.

This is the first election since the passage of the women's reservation bill in the Parliament to reserve one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women. The law is yet to come into effect. According to an analysis by think-tank PRS, 16 per cent of these women MPs are below the age of 40.

The analysis said 41 per cent of women MPs (30 MPs) have previously been members of the Lok Sabha. Of the others, one MP has been a member of the Rajya Sabha. "While there has been a slow increase in the number of women in the Lok Sabha over the years, India still lags behind several countries. For example, 46 per cent of MPs in South Africa, 35 per cent in the UK, and 29 per cent in the US are women," the analysis said.

According to an analysis of the Election Commission data, BJP's 30 women candidates won the polls this time, Congress' 14, TMC's 11, four of the Samajwadi Party's, three of the DMK, and two each of the JDU and LJP(R). With over 13.62 per cent female MPs, the 18th Lok Sabha will have one of the highest number of women members since 1952.

The 17th Lok Sabha had the highest number of women parliamentarians at 78, constituting over 14 per cent of the total strength. In the 16th Lok Sabha, 64 women were its members, while 52 women were elected to the 15th Lok Sabha. BJP's Hema Malini, TMC's Mahua Moitra, NCP's Supriya Sule, and SP's Dimple Yadav retained their seats in the Lok Sabha polls, but candidates like Kangana Ranaut and Misha Bharati stole the show with their victories.

Samajwadi Party's 25-year-old candidate for Machhlishahr, Priya Saroj, and 29-year-old Iqra Choudhary of Kairana seat, were among the youngest nominees to secure a victory. Notably, parties like the Naam Tamilar Katchi has achieved equal gender representation with 50 per cent women candidates. Other parties with significant female representation included the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and the Nationalist Congress Party, each with 40 per cent women candidates.

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) both had 33 per cent female representation, while the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) had 29 per cent. The Samajwadi Party had 20 per cent, and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) 25 per cent. A total of 8,360 candidates were in the fray in the parliamentary polls.

Three transgender candidates contested the elections independently. But all of them lost in the polls. There were 24 women MPs each in the first and the second Lok Sabha.