AAP Hits a Six in Bringing Women Leaders

While we’re not sure whether that measures up to chase the score of full women representation, the six women who have emerged victorious in this showdown are figures worth getting acquainted with.

The candidates, who are now MLAs are Rakhi Birla, Bandna Kumari, Saritha Singh, Alka Lambha, Parmila Tokas and Bhavna Gaur, making for a meager 8 percent of the total 70 seats, 67 of which AAP claimed as their territory in what was seen as a clean sweep by the party.

In all, 66 women candidates were contesting Delhi’s assembly elections, with 6 fielded by AAP, while the Congress had given tickets to the lowest number of women, that is, 5. Amongst them were leaders like Sharmishta Mukherjee, President Pranab Mukherjee’s daughter.

BJP had given tickets to maximum number of seven women candidates including its Chief Ministerial nominee Kiran Bedi, former Congress leader Krishna Tirath and youth face Nupur Sharma.

Meet the Lady-Leaders:

Rakhi Birla: She was the Cabinet minister for Women and Child, Social Welfare and Languages in Delhi, in AAP's cameo 49 day regime. This time around, she contested from Mangol Puri constituency in West Delhi and defeated Congress' Raj Kumar Chauhan by 22,699 votes. This 27-year-old AAP leader happens to be the youngest ever cabinet minister in Delhi.

Rakhi Birla: Youngest ever Delhi MLA. Picture by: One India

Bandana Kumari: The newly christened MLA from the Shalimar Bagh constituency, she held her post from the 2013 Assembly polls. This time, she did so by defeating another woman candidate, BJP's Rekha Gupta. What’s most impressive is the shock therapy she administered to BJP by winning this seat in 2013- as the constituency was traditionally considered to be a bastion of the saffron party for decades.

Alka Lamba:  She shifted camps from Congress to AAP in 2013.This former Congress-affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI) and Delhi university Students Union (DUSU) president, won from Chandni Chowk constituency, defeating yet another women candidate of BJP, Suman Kumar Gupta, by more than 18,000 votes.

Parmila Tokas: Tokas, an independent municipal councilor, was fielded from the RK Puram constituency. Interestingly, the party had chosen Shazia Ilmi to contest from this constituency in the last elections, before the infamous Ilmi and Kejriwal fallout that led to her joining BJP just ahead of these elections.

AAP Candidate Parmila Tokas. Picture by: IndiaTimes-EconomicTimes

Sarita Singh: Also one of the youngest woman candidates sporting the jhadoo, Sarita Singh won from the Rohtash Nagar Assembly constituency with a margin of 7,874 votes. She was the acting student wing president.

Bhawna Gaur: There was some controversy surrounding her ticket- as this former BJP councilor, during her term, had certain cases of illegal construction and occupation of a house registered against her.  She contested from the Palam constituency in South-West Delhi, and defeated BJP's Dhram Dev Solanki by 30,849 votes, without any hurdles.

Featured Image: PC: ABP Live