LS Polls 2024: Why Surge In Women Voters Alone Cannot Bridge Politics Gender Gap

Despite the growing demand for equitable representation in Indian politics, the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 saw a stark gender imbalance, with women making up a mere 9.53% of the candidates. While the female voter count continues to show an enthusiastic surge, with about 48.9% of all voters being women, the presence of female candidates remains dismally low. For the general election in 2024, 797 female candidates were in the fray, accounting for less than 10% of the 8,360 candidates. A total of 75 women were leading across the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies.

While all eyes were on the implementation of the Women's Reservation Bill, promising 33% of Lok Sabha and State Assembly seats for women, political analysts and activists have pointed out the inefficiency of parties in fielding more women. The general elections spotlighted women through targeted campaigns and schemes; however, when it came to candidacy, this enthusiasm was dimmed. 

Meagre Women's Candidacy

While many States boast a higher female voter count than males, the number of female candidates contesting the Lok Sabha elections remains bleak. For example, in Tamil Nadu, there are 3.1 crore female voters and 3 crore males. However, six out of the 39 Lok Sabha constituencies have only male contestants.

Only one party, the NTK, has given equal representation to women candidates with 50% of the tickets for the 2024 general elections. The party had fielded women for 50% of the seats even in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and 2021 State Assembly polls. Significantly, the NTK women garnered the majority of the votes as compared to their male counterparts.

Lok Sabha 2024 Elections: How Women Fared

Out of over 8,500 contestants in the fray, the 797 candidates women made up just 9.5% of the candidates. Although the number of female candidates has risen from 726 five years ago, the percentage of women among the total candidates has shown only a marginal improvement. In 2024, 188 parties out of 749 have fielded female candidates

The BJP, Congress, and All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) account for the biggest number of women candidates, with about 13.8% share of the women overall. Over 30 women candidates have won from their respective constituencies till now. The number of women winners has come down from the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when 78 women candidates had won.

Tripura East's Kriti Devi Debbarman of the BJP had the highest victory margin among women winners, with a vote share of 68.54%. This was followed by another BJP candidate, Lata Wankhede from the Sagar constituency in Madhya Pradesh with a vote share of 68.51%. Selja Kumari of Congress won Haryana's Sirsa Lok Sabha seat by over 2.5 lakh votes.

Some of the most prominent candidates who secured wins are BJP's Kangana Ranaut who won Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, BJP's Hema Malini who won Mathura in Uttar Pradesh, DMK leader Kanimozhi Karunanidhi who won Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu, Samajwadi Party's Dimple Yadav who won Mainpuri, and more.

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Meanwhile, some promising candidates also suffered defeats. These include Bahujan Samaj Party's Mayawati, and BJP leaders Smriti Irani and Maneka Gandhi who lost the Amethi and Sultanpur seats respectively. Despite this, Irani, who was defeated by a huge margin of over 1.5 lakh votes, expressed confidence and gratitude for her supporters.

Women In Indian Politics: What Recent State Assembly Results Show

A look at the recent Lok Sabha and State Assembly election results shows an unmissable trend where several women candidates have emerged successful in their respective constituencies. The results reflect how the proportion of women contestants who won have had a higher vote share than many male candidates, despite low representation by political parties. 

In the 2023 assembly elections in five States (Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram), women candidates of the BJP and Congress contested for less than 12% of seats, as reported by Hindustan Times. This came merely two months after the Parliament passed the Women’s Reservation Bill.

While the BJP has been widely praised for the 128th amendment of the Constitution, Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam 2023, the party had only 11.7% of women candidates contesting in the elections. The Congress claims credit for the women’s reservation bill, having introduced it in 2010 during Manmohan Singh’s rule; but they too had only 10.8% of women candidates.

Arunachal Pradesh (2024)

For the 60-member State Assembly, eight women contested the elections in April 2024. In a remarkable victory, 50% of the female candidates, that is four members, secured a victory. All the winners are from the BJP, and three of the winners are kins of prominent lawmakers in the State. 

Since the inception of assembly elections in 1978, a total of 17 women have held positions as representatives. The winners are Dasanglu Pul of the Hayuliang constituency, Tsering Lhamu of the Lumla seat, Chakat Aboh in Khonsa West, and newcomer  Nyabi Jini Dirchi elected for the Basar seat. 

Lahaul & Spiti (2024)

For the first time in over five decades, Lahaul and Spiti saw a woman candidate contesting the elections. In the recent by-polls, Anuradha Rana of Congress made history as the first tribal woman and second-ever woman to be elected to the assembly. She secured 9,414 votes to defeat independent candidate and former BJP member Ram Lal Markanda.

Rajasthan (2023)

Women constituted 2.51 crore eligible voters this year. Out of the 200 seats, the BJP fielded 20 women candidates, and the Congress fielded 28 women candidates. However, the results displayed the voters' inclination toward women candidates.

Diya Kumari of Vidhaydhar Nagar constituency won the seat of the second Deputy Chief Minister. Kumari won over 1 lakh votes just like former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who won from Jhalrapatan. Nine out of the 115 winning candidates in Rajasthan are women. Meanwhile, in the Congress, nine out of the 69 winners are women; and two independent candidates, Dr Ritu Baanawat and Dr Ritu Chowdhary have also emerged victorious.

Mizoram (2023)

Three women were elected to be MLAs; the first time more than one woman candidate has been elected in the State. Lalrinpuii and Baryl Vanneihsangi were elected from the winning ZPM and Pravo Chakma was elected from the outgoing Mizo National Front. The last woman leader to be elected was Vanlalawmpuii Chawngthu, who was elected in a 2014 by-election. Chawngthu was inducted as a junior minister in the former Congress government in 2017.

The State had two women contestants from the Congress and four from the BJP. The state recorded that female eligible voters (4,39,028) outnumbered males (4,13,064) this year. 81.21% of women cast their vote, as compared to 75.79% of men.

Chhatisgarh (2023) 

In Chhattisgarh's 90-seat assembly, 14 women were contesting from the BJP and three were from Congress. The State boasts the highest number of women MLAs in the country, with nine out of the 54 winning BJP candidates being women this year.

Laxmi Rajwade won from Bhatgaon with over 1 lakh votes, while Lata Usendi won from Kondagaon with over 80,000 votes. A total of 11 women candidates from Congress have won and account for almost one-third of its 35 winning candidates.

Women-Centric Politics Doesn't Only Mean Schemes And Policies

Several States in India are witnessing a surge in women voters and political parties are banking on this with a systemised array of promises and schemes pivoting on women's empowerment. The parties put a focus on grassroots-level campaigning, providing necessities to less-privileged households with women. 

These included promises for subsidised cooking gas and ration, annual allowance for girl children, monthly aid for households led by women, pensions for women senior citizens, reservations for women in government jobs, smartphones for women, gold from brides, and more. The parties also held all-women rallies and campaigns.

However, it is time that parties also field more women candidates for elections to give equitable representation to women candidates. The proportion of female representatives has to be elevated to balance it with the surge of female voters to ensure that the voters feel seen and heard in India's crucial political landscape. 

Views expressed by the author are their own