In a first the people of Jharkhand have demonstrated the will to push ahead the cause towards womens’ empowerment by ushering in ten women to the state Assembly. That shows that the aim for womens’ empowerment is not only limited to slogans but in practice as well.
Since the creation of the state, it is for the first time that 10 women MLAs will be present inside the Jharkhand Assembly.
Off these 10 women, 6 have registered their maiden win in these elections. In the Assembly elections of 2014, nine women had emerged victorious while in 2009, eight and in 2005 only 5 women candidates had managed to reach the “Vidhan Sabha”.
In the Assembly elections of 2019, a total of 127 women candidates were in the race in the 81-member Assembly.
Three sitting MLAs including Dr Neera Yadav who served as the HRD minister in the Raghubar Das government of the state and JMM MLAs once again won from Koderma seat while JMM’s Joba Manjhi and Sita Murmu also emerged victorious from Manoharpur (ST) and Jama (ST) seats of the state. Sita is daughter-in-law of Shibu Soren and is the widow of his elder son Durga Soren.
Former MLA Aparna Sen Gupta, who contested on BJP ticket, destroyed the red fortress of Nirsa and came back into the Assembly.
Four women Congress MLAs who won for the first time included Amba Prasad (Barkagaon), she won the traditional seat of her family defeating Roshan Lal Chowdhary of the AJSU which was earlier represented by her father and former cabinet minister Yogendra Sao and mother Nirmala Devi.
Poornima Neeraj Singh (Jharia) wrested the traditional bastion of BJP and the seat which had been the biggest bone of contention among the warring family members of ‘Singh Mansion’ and ‘Raghukul’ in the coal belt of Dhanbad. In an intriguing battle, she defeated her sister-in-law Ragini Singh from the seat.
Mamta Devi (Ramgarh) proved to be another giant killer as she took the prestigious seat from AJSU which was held by former cabinet minister and present Giridih MP Chandraprakash Chowdhary who this time had fielded his wife from the seat. Dipika Pandey Singh (Mahgama) won from the seat of Santhal Pargana defeating sitting BJP MLA Ashok Bhagat.
Sabita Mahto of the JMM, who is widow of Sudhir Mahto, won from the Ichagarh seat while Pushpa Devi of BJP won from Chattarpur (SC) seat of Palamu division.
Party wise Congress has a maximum of four women MLAs, while JMM and BJP has three women MLAs each in the new Assembly.
On Monday, the Mahagathbandhan in Jharkhand, comprising the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Congress and the RJD, defeated BJP in Jharkhand Assembly polls by comfortably crossing the magic number of 41.
The grand alliance won 47 seats, with JMM winning 30, Congress getting 16, while RJD managed to clinch one seat.
