Of the 46 women who will enter the UP assembly, compared to the 42 in 2017, 30 are from BJP, 3 from BJP Ally Apna Dal (Sonelal), 12 from SP, and one from Congress.
BJP candidate Anjula Singh Mahaur from Hathras has the highest winning vote margin among women candidates. Among the SP candidates, the victory of Pallavi Patel against deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya from Sirathu was the most resounding. Defectors such as Salona Khushwaha who joined the BJP from SP, citing no respect for women in SP, won from Tilhar and Aditi Singh who joined BJP from Congress also won. There were 560 women candidates who contested the UP election this time.
Five women were elected to the 60-member Manipur assembly, the highest ever in the electoral history of the state. Punjab showed a welcome change with around 13 women getting elected to the 117-member assembly . In Uttarakhand, eight women won their seats, BJP had given tickets to six women candidates and all of them won. According to PRS legislative, the number of women MLAs in Punjab has more than doubled to 13 in 2022 from six in 2017. Women representation in the Goa assembly marginally improved with three women MLAs in 2022 as compared to two in 2017.
Political researcher in Delhi University Ananya Mishra said the numbers of women’s participation in states such as Punjab has been dismal which needed to change. “The number of female MLAs was reduced to 5% from around 7.5% in 2017 which was a cause of concern. Uttarakhand has maintained a 5% participation but none of the women are part of the top decision-making team which is something the parties need to think about.”
