A total of 73 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 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 13.44 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 Kangna 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, the parties like Naam Tamilar Katchi has achieved equal gender representation with 50 per cent women candidates.
Other parties with significant female representation included Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and 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.
Meanwhile, four candidates are set to become the youngest members of parliament (MPs) after scoring victory in the Lok Sabha polls. All of them are 25 years old. Pushpendra Saroj and Priya Saroj fought on Samajwadi Party’s ticket, while Shambhavi Choudhary and Sanjana Jatav were fielded by the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and the Congress respectively.
Shambhavi Choudhary is the daughter of Ashok Choudhary, a minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet in Bihar. She won from the Samastipur constituency after defeating her nearest rival — Sunny Hazari of Congress — by a comfortable margin. Sunny Hazari is the son of JD(U) minister Maheshwar Hazari.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier praised Shambhavi as the youngest NDA candidate while addressing a campaign rally.
Sanjana Jatav won from the Bharatpur constituency in Rajasthan. The 25-year-old defeated BJP’s Ramswaroop Koli by a margin of 51,983 votes. She had also fought the 2023 assemby elections but lost to BJP’s Ramesh Khedi by just 409 votes. Sanjana is married to Kaptan Singh — a Rajasthan police constable.
Pushpendra Saroj entered the political battlefield as a SP candidate from the Kaushambi parliamentary seat - previously held by the BJP. He won by defeating sitting BJP MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar by a margin of 103,944 votes. Pushpendra is the son of five-time MLA and former Uttar Pradesh Minister Inderjit Saroj.
Priya Saroj won from the Machhlishahr seat by a margin of 35,850 votes. She had been pitted against sitting BJP MP Bholanath. Priya is the daughter of three-time MP Toofani Saroj.
