Only 31 women elected to Delhi Assembly in 22 years

NEW DELHI: A total of 31 women have been elected to the Delhi Assembly since its first election in 1993, with the highest number of MLAs being 20 from the Congress in a span of 22 years till 2015. In the first and second Assemblies, in 1993 and 1998 respectively, the BJP had one female member in each term to the House, while no other party’s female candidate was ever elected to the House after that period.

In 1993, the first Assembly of Delhi, there were three women elected to the House. While two of them were from the Congress, one was from the BJP. The two female Congress MLAs were Krishna Tirath and Tajdar Babar and that from BJP was Purnima Sethi. It is worth mentioning that Tirath has been fielded by the Congress again for the 2020 Assembly election from Patel Nagar Assembly. In the next Assembly in 1998 — when Sheila Dikshit became the Chief Minister of Delhi for the first time — a maximum number of women were elected to the House. The Assembly elected nine women, out of which eight were from the Congress and one was from the BJP — Sushma Swaraj from Hauz Khas.

This was also a landmark year as post this, no female BJP leader has been elected to the House to date. In 1998, BJP’s Sushma Swaraj was elected to the House after she served as the Chief Minister of Delhi in the first Assembly for a brief period just before the Assembly elections. Dikshit became the only second female Chief Minister of Delhi. In 2020 Assembly polls, a total of 79 women are trying their luck with 24 of them from the Congress, BJP, and AAP. (IANS)

Also Read: Election Commission announced Feb 8 as Delhi assembly election, counting on Feb 11

Also Watch: Assam Police destroyed Opium poppy plantation in South Salmara once again