Delhi Lok Sabha Election 2024:
When it comes to representation of women in the Lok Sabha, the national capital of Delhi presents a disappointing picture. Since 1962, out of 106 parliamentary elections across all constituencies in Delhi, only 12 female candidates have secured victories. If we convert this proportion into percentages, it amounts to a mere 11.3 percent.
Which Women Have Registered Victories in Delhi?
Since the year 1952, only 9 women have served as Lok Sabha MPs from the seats of Delhi. Congress party's Sucheta Kripalani was Delhi's first female MP. She won the New Delhi constituency elections in 1952 and 1957. Kripalani went on to become the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in 1963. Following her, Delhi had to wait for 9 years before it saw the next female MPs. From Congress party, Subhadra Joshi from Chandni Chowk, and Mukul Banerjee from New Delhi were victorious in the 1971 Lok Sabha elections.
That year marked the first time Delhi elected two female MPs. This achievement was repeated in 1996 and 1998 when Meira Kumar and Sushma Swaraj were elected.
Source: aajtak
Since 1971, out of the seven constituencies in Delhi, the Karol Bagh (now dissolved) seat saw four women - Sundarwati Navin Prabhakar, Meira Kumar, Anita Arya, and Krishna Tirath - represent it five times. It was a scheduled caste reserved seat. New Delhi constituency was represented by Mukul Banerjee in 1971, and by Meenakshi Lekhi in 2014 and 2019.
South Delhi constituency was represented twice by Sushma Swaraj in 1996 and 1998. Subhadra Joshi represented the Chandni Chowk constituency in 1971, and Krishna Tirath represented the North West Delhi constituency in 2009.
The History of Delhi's Female MPs
It's noteworthy that since the year 1952, whenever women have won seats in Delhi, they have represented either the Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party. Congress's female candidates have won seven times and BJP's female candidates have been victorious five times. BJP's Sushma Swaraj became the first non-Congress female candidate to win a Lok Sabha seat from Delhi.
Five women have repeated their Lok Sabha tenure in Delhi. The list includes Sucheta Kripalani (Congress), Sushma Swaraj (BJP), Meira Kumar (Congress), Meenakshi Lekhi (BJP), and Krishna Tirath (Congress).
In all the female Lok Sabha candidates who stood from Delhi, Congress's Sundarwati Naval Prabhakar had the largest victory margin. In 1985, she defeated Sundar Pal Rathwa from Karol Bagh by over 86,000 votes.
In the elections of 1977, 1989, and 1991, no female candidate from Delhi was elected to Parliament.
The New Phase
From 2004 to 2019, there were 603 electoral battles in Delhi. Out of these, 62 elections featured female candidates, and only four resulted in victories for women. That's a win rate of just 6.45 percent. To verify this, we used data from the Election Commission of India and cross-checked it using ElectionGPT (https://electionsgpt.org/), an AI and data-driven chatbot developed by journalists at India Today. The JournalismAI team at the London School of Economics is equipped with data from past Lok Sabha elections (from 1962 to the present) and is designed to aid in the analysis of election results.
In the last four elections, BJP fielded five female candidates, Congress four, and Aam Aadmi Party two. Shiv Sena and All India Trinamool Congress fielded one female candidate each.
The pattern found in Lok Sabha elections can also be seen in assembly elections. However, Delhi's Sheila Dikshit was the longest-serving female Chief Minister in India. Since 1972, out of 668 assembly election competitors in Delhi, only 50 women have won.
Since the year 2000, women have won 27 assembly elections from Delhi. Currently, of the 70 members in the Delhi assembly, only eight are women, which represents 11.4 percent.
What's the Equation for This Lok Sabha Election?
For the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, BJP has fielded two female candidates. Bansuri Swaraj, daughter of late Sushma Swaraj, from the New Delhi constituency, and Kamaljeet Sherawat from the West Delhi constituency. No female candidate has yet won the West Delhi seat. INDIA group has not fielded any female candidate in Delhi.
