By Nivedita Singh
New Delhi, The percentage of women contesting the Delhi Assembly polls will be the highest in the 2020 Assembly polls, at over 11 per cent. This is the first time that this percentage has reached the double digits.
Out of the total 672 candidates in the fray in these Assembly polls, 79 are women — over 11 per cent of the total contestants.
In 2015, 66 of the 673 contestants, or over 9 per cent, were women, but only six of them were elected to the house.
In 2013, when three MLAs were women, the number of women in the fray was 71 out of the total of 810 contestants.
The number of women in the fray was highest in 2008 at 81 out of 875, a little below 10 per cent. Only three were elected.
Seven women MLAS were elected to Delhi’s third Assembly in 2003. Women comprised 78 out of the total 817 candidates in the fray, or over nine per cent.
During the 1998 assembly elections, when the Congress wrested power and Sheila Dikshit became the Chief Minister for the first time, there were 57 females in the fray. This time, the highest number of women MLAs – nine – were elected to the House.
In its first Assembly election in 1993, Delhi saw 59 women in the fray out of record total of 1,316 candidates, but only three were elected.
Delhi is going for polls again on Saturday with a total of 79 women in the fray with the top political parties — the Aam Aadmi Party, BJP and Congress — fielding 24 female candidates.
The results on February 11 will decide how many of them make it to the Assembly.
While the Congress is aiming to come back to the helm after ruling the city for 15 years in a stretch, the AAP is aiming to retain power and is trying for a hat-trick, and the BJP, which has been out of power in Delhi for more than two decades, is also aiming to form a government.
