Assam polls: Only 7 women enter 126-member Legislative Assembly
Of the 59 women candidates who fought to enter the 126-member Assam Assembly, only seven managed to win, the same as in 2021.
In the new Assembly, the ruling NDA will have six women legislators, while the Opposition Congress has one. Women comprise 49.98 per cent of the State’s total electorate of 2.50 crore.
The BJP has increased the tally of its women MLAs to four, while its allies Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and Bodoland People’s Front will have one each. Of the 14 women candidates the Congress fielded, the highest among all parties, only one managed to win.
In the outgoing Assam Assembly, the BJP had three MLAs, and the AGP and the Congress two each.
The NDA is set to form the Government in Assam for the third consecutive term after securing a two-thirds majority, with a record high of 102 seats in the 126-member Assembly, while the Congress-led Opposition delivered its worst performance in recent times.
The BJP won 82 of the 90 seats it contested, while its allies — the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), which contested 11 constituencies, and the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), which fought in 26 - bagged 10 seats each.
The most prominent woman candidate to win the election is State Finance Minister Ajanta Neog, who retained her Golaghat constituency for the sixth consecutive term.
The other BJP candidates to win are its Mahila Morcha state unit chief Nilima Devi in Mangaldoi and Niso Terangpi from Diphu. Another BJP minister in the outgoing Cabinet, Nandita Garlosa, had switched to the Congress after she was denied a ticket and contested from Haflong, but lost to the saffron party’s greenhorn Rupali Langthasa.
The AGP’s Diptimayee Choudhury retained the Bongaigaon seat, while the BPF’s Sewli Mohilary, the wife of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) Chief Hagrama Mohilary, won from Kokrajhar.
The lone woman Congress candidate to win the seat is first-timer Baby Begum from Dhubri. Its prominent losers are sitting MLA Nandita Das from Hajo-Sualkuchi, former minister Pranati Phukan from Naharkatia, ex-legislator Roselina Tirkey from Khumtai, and the party’s State Mahila Morcha chief Mira Borthakur Goswami from Dispur.
There has been a steady decline in the number of women candidates in the State polls - from the highest 91 in 2016 to 74 in 2021 and 59 this time.
In 2016, eight of the 91 women candidates won. The 2011 Assembly polls had seen the highest 14 women entering the Assembly of the 86 who fought the elections that time.
