Women double their representation in Punjab assembly
With 13 women elected to the 117-strong Punjab assembly, their representation has gone up from a mere six in the previous House, but still remains dismal
With 13 women elected to the 117-strong Punjab assembly on Thursday, their representation has gone up from a mere six in the previous House, but still remains dismal.
However, from Jeevan Jyot Kaur of the Aam Aadmi Party who defeated two bigwigs Navjot Singh Sidhu and Bikram Singh Majithia from the Amritsar East segment to Dr Baljit Kaur, an eye surgeon who won by a huge margin of 40,261 votes from Malout, women’s performance has grabbed the eyeballs.
As many as 11 of the total 12 women candidates fielded by the AAP managed to win while senior Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia’s wife Ganieve Kaur Majithia won from Majitha segment by 26,062 votes. Aruna Chaudhary of the Congress won from Dinanagar by 1,131 votes.
Besides Jeevan Jyot Kaur, who won by a margin of 6,750 votes, other women winners from the AAP include Santosh Kumar Kataria (Balachaur, with 4,541 winning margin), Saravjit Kaur Manuke (Jagraon, 39,656), Rajinder Pal Kaur (Ludhiana South, 26,138), Baljit Kaur (Malout, 40,261), Dr Amandeep Kaur Arora (Moga, 20,915), Inderjit Kaur (Nakodar, 2,869), Neena Mittal (Rajpura, 22,493), Narinder Kaur Bharaj (Sangrur, 36,430), Baljinder Kaur (Talwandi Saboo, 15,252), and Anmol Gagan Mann (Kharar, 37,885).
At 27, Narinder Kaur Bharaj is the youngest winner among women. Saravjit Kaur Manuke, 49, who claimed a resounding victory for the second consecutive time from Jagraon, is a former teacher who also remained the deputy leader of opposition. Even Santosh Kumari Kataria has been a home tutor in the past. Baljit Kaur, who is the daughter of former Faridkot MP Prof Sadhu Singh, has served at the Muktsar civil hospital for nearly eight years before taking premature retirement last year.
The representation of women in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha was just five in 2002, while it rose to seven in 2007 and doubled to 14 in 2012. In 2017, it once again fell to six. A total of 93 women, barely 7.1% of the total, had contested the 2022 polls.