Ten Of 81 Seats Won By Women In Jharkhand Assembly Elections

As Jharkhand Mukti Morcha gets ready to form a government in Jharkhand in alliance with Congress, it is important to note that of the total 81 seats only ten seats have been won by women candidates, in the recently concluded state assembly elections. While Congress had fielded six women candidates, four of them won, followed by JMM and BJP with three women candidates winning from each party.

The winners

BJP's Pushpa Devi from Chattarpur defeated Rashtriya Janta Dal's Vijay Kumar with the largest margin of 26,792 votes.

The women MLAs include Congress Party's Deepika Pandey Singh (Mahagama), Amba Prasad (Barkagaon), Mamta Devi (Ramgarh) and Poornima Neeraj Singh (Jharia), JMM's Sita Murmu (Jama), Sabita Mahato (Ichagarh) and Joba Manjhi (Manoharpur) and BJP's Dr Neera Yadav (Koderma), Aparna Sengupta (Nirsa) and Pushpa Devi (Chattarpur). In one of the constituencies, Jharia, both the contending candidates from BJP and Congress were women -Ragini Singh and Poornima Niraj Singh respectively - however, Congress' Singh won the seat by 12,054 votes.

Also Read: Haryana Elects Fewer Number Of Women MLAs, From 13 To 9 Since 2014

Vote margin

Among the winning women candidates, BJP's Pushpa Devi from Chattarpur defeated Rashtriya Janta Dal's Vijay Kumar with the largest margin of 26,792 votes. She was followed by BJP's Sengupta from Nirsa, who won by 25,458 votes against Marxist Co-Ordination's Arup Chatterjee. The lowest margin was between BJP's Yadav who won by a narrow difference of 1,797 votes against RJD's Amitabh Kumar.

Who are Jharkhand's women MLAs?

Of all the winning woman candidates, only three have come back as MLAs for the second time in a row. These three women MLAs are Murmu, Yadav and Manjhi. While Dr Neera Yadav has been an MLA since 2014, Murmu has been an MLA for three terms consecutively and Manjhi lost in 2009 elections as she won in 2005, 2014 and 2019. Sengupta has returned as an MLA after her stint in 2005.

Congress' Mayur Shekhar Jha posted a series of tweets on Twitter after the election results were declared in the evening today. Praising the women candidates, he wrote, "Another interesting perspective from #JharkhandElectionResults We gave a ticket to three women candidates. Four of them won and two lost very narrowly. All of these were very tough elections."

Another interesting perspective from #JharkhandElectionResults We gave ticket to 6 women candidates. 4 of them won and 2 lost very narrowly. All of these were very tough elections.

— Mayur Shekhar Jha (@mayur_jha) December 23, 2019

"Our candidate Mamta Devi won from Ramgarh. She defeated Sunitaji, wife of MP and three-term minister CP Choudhary. She is product of labour and farmer movements against mining mafia. Was put in jail as political vendetta. A first-gen political activist #JharkhandElectionResults," he added.

Our candidate Mamta devi won from Ramgarh. She defeated Sunita ji, wife of MP and 3 term minister CP Choudhary. She is product of labour and farmer movements against mining mafia. Was put in jail as political vandetta. A first gen political activist #JharkhandElectionResults

— Mayur Shekhar Jha (@mayur_jha) December 23, 2019

Also read: 10 Of 24 Women Candidates Are First Time MLAs In Maharashtra

In one of the constituencies, Jharia, both the contending candidates from BJP and Congress were women -Ragini Singh and Poornima Niraj Singh respectively - however, Congress' Singh won the seat by 12,054 votes.

He also spoke about the challenges faced by Amba Prasad whose parents continue to be in jail for fighting against mining contractors. He also called Singh "one of the most popular young faces of Koylanchal" and he sympathized by Deepika for being "physically attacked by BJP goons just hours before polling began".

JMM's Hemant Soren is set to return as the CM of Jharkhand after BJP's Raghubar Das quits from the post. He became the CM of Jharkhand for the first time in 2013 but his stint lasted only for 14 months. The opposition Grand Alliance of Congress, JMM and RJD won 43 seats in total while BJP won 22 seats. The elections for the 81 Assembly constituencies were held in five phases between 30 November and 20 December.