Though women constitute half of the total electorate in India and the country's Lok Shoba elections saw a significant female voter turnout, the representation of women lawmakers in the two major opposition parties is not that noticeable.
Trinamool Congress, which secured the majority in West Bengal, with 29 seats, has a relatively significant representation of women with 11 women being elected MP, which is about 38 per cent of total lawmakers.
On the other hand, the leading opposition, Congress lagged far behind the Trinamool in the percentage of women’s representation among the elected lawmakers. Only 13 out of the total 99 MPs were women, which is about 13 per cent – 25 per cent less than the Trinamool.
In West Bengal, all women MP of Trinamool overpowered their opponents from Prime Minster Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Among them, Pratima Mondal won the polls from Joynagar seat with the highest margin of 470,219 votes defeating BJP’s Ashok Kandary who secured just 24,093 votes, while Bag Mitali barely survived the scare in the Arambagh seat with a margin of just 6,399 votes, overcoming BJP’s Arup Kanti Digar.
Trionamool’s other women lawmakers are Mahua Moitra, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Sayani Ghosh, Mala Roy, Sajda Ahmed, Rachna Banerjee, June Maliah, Sharmila Sarkar and Satabdi Roy.
Among the Congress’ women MPs, Sudha Ramakrishnan won the election in Mayiladuthurai of Tamil Nadu, with the highest margin of 271,183 votes, defeating Babu P of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, while Bachhav Shobha Dinesh bagged 583,866 votes and narrowly escaped the race from Dhule seats in Maharashtra with a slim margin of 3831 votes, defeating Bhamre Subhash Ramrao of BJP.
The other women MPs of Congress are Geniben Nagaji Thakor, Selja, Priyanka Satish Jarkiholi, Prabha Mallikarjun, Dhanorkar Pratibha Suresh Alias Balubhau, Gaikwad Varsha Eknath, Praniti Sushilkumar Shinde, Sanjna Jatav, Jothimani S, Jyotsna Charandas Mahant and Kadiyam Kavya.
There are 968 million voters in India and 471 million of them women. Over 310 million women cast their vote and female voter turnout was more or less 60 per cent all seven phases, according to the Election Commission of India.