Three cheers to women in Punjab, Haryana
Women have made their presence felt in Punjab and Haryana as six of them have made their entry to the Lok Sabha from the two states which are notorious for discrimination against the girl child manifested in the lowest sex ratio in the country.
The victory of all the four women candidates in Punjab fielded by principal parties — the Congress and the Akali Dal (two each) — is unprecedented in the state’s electoral history signaling a healthy trend in patriarchal states.
In the 2004 elections, only two women candidates had won from Punjab and one from Haryana. Incidentally, the three women candidates who had won last time repeated their performance this time too. Perneet Kaur, wife of former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh and Congress candidate from Patiala, won for the third successive time.
Akali Dal’s Paramjit Gulshan who contested from Faridkot also achieved a hat trick of electoral victories by defeating her Congress rival Sukhwinder Singh Danny.
Union Minister Kumari Selja, who won from Ambala constituency of Haryana last time, managed to win her seat this time by a margin of over 14,000 votes. The 33-year-old Shruti Choudhary, granddaughter of late chief minister of Haryana Bansi lal, won a tough battle from Bhiwani-Mahendergarh constituency by defeating two-time MP Ajay Chautala, son of former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala.
Another first-timer in the fray, 42-year-old Harsimrat Kaur Badal, wife of Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal and daughter-in-law of Chief Minister P S Badal, won from Bathinda in a high profile contest featuring Capt Amarinder and Perneet Kaur’s son Raninder Singh.
Congress veteran Santosh Chaudhary scraped through from Hoshiarpur constituency by a margin of only 366 votes against her BJP rival.
DH News Service
