Only 8% women MLAs elected in Haryana assembly since 1967
Only 8% women MLAs elected in Haryana assembly since 1967
October 2, 2024
By Parvathi Benu
The Haryana Vidhan Sabha Secretariat (Haryana Legislative Assembly Secretariat). Photo by Sanyam Bahga/ Wikimedia Commons
From the first election to the Haryana state assembly in 1967 after the state was carved out of Punjab in 1966 to the one in 2019, a total of 839 candidates have become elected representatives. Of this 839, just 69 women – a measly 8% – have been elected to the Haryana assembly.
Data from the Election Commission of India collated by Ashoka University’s Lok Dhaba repository shows that in the 90-member Haryana assembly, less than 10 women have been elected to be its members in most elections. The only exceptions to this poor representation have been in 2014 and 2005 when the number of women MLAs was 13 and 12 respectively. The current assembly has nine women MLAs.
This is line with the skewed representation of women legislators in all states across the country which does not exceed more than 15% in any state.
The crowd’s favourites
India follows a first-past-the-post system in its elections. This means, voters select just one candidate as their choice, and the candidate with the most votes is elected, even if they do not receive more than half of the total votes, which is a majority.
Data on the Haryana assembly elections points towards an interesting fact. Although most women elected to the Haryana assembly weren’t the popular faces in their constituencies, 25 of 69 women – that is one in three candidates – polled more than 50% of the votes in their constituencies. Seventeen of them were Congress candidates.
In 2019, no women MLAs secured more than 50% of the vote share. In 2014, three of them managed to achieve this feat. They are BJP’s Rohita Bewri, Bimla Chaudhary and Seema Trikha.
Over 90% votes polled
Two women who have secured more than 90% of the votes are Savitri Jindal and Kiran Choudhary. Both were in byelections held after the deaths of their sitting-MLA husbands and with no significant opponents.
Congress candidate Savitri Jindal contested from Hisar seat in 2005 following the death of her husband Om Prakash Jindal. Data shows she had 11 opponents, all of whom were independent candidates. Jindal polled 1.03 lakh votes, while closest contender was Dr Rajendra Mallick polled 1,102 votes.
The same year, Tosham constituency fell vacant after the death of its MLA Surender Singh. His wife Kiran Choudhary contested the byelections and secured a whopping 1.25 lakh votes. Her four opponents were all independent candidates, and the closest contender to her polled just 338 votes.
Parvathi Benu is a Data Journalist based in Chennai who now works for The Morning Context. She was previously with The Hindu BusinessLine and The New Indian Express.
