'Woman power' unleashed in Lok Sabha

Pratibha Patil has been the President of India for nearly two years while Sonia Gandhi is the President of the ruling Congress as also the Chairperson of the UPA, the alliance that runs the government.

Besides, it is not only 'Madam Speaker' for the first time in the Lok Sabha, but the Lower House also boasts of having a record number of women members this time.

Among the 59 women are the high and mighty of politics like Mamta Banerjee of Trinamool Congress, whose party with 19 members is the second largest in the ruling alliance.

There are several woman ministers in the Union Council, including Ambika Soni, Kumari Selja, D Purandeshwari, Krishna Tirath, Panabaka Lakshmi and Praneet Kaur.

Agatha Sangma (28) is the 'baby' of the cabinet while Meira Kumar herself was a cabinet minister till last week.

Among the leading lights of the opposition are Sushma Swaraj of BJP as also Sumitra Mahajan. Jaya Prada of SP has literally fought her way to the Lok Sabha for the second time.

The first-timers include Shruti Chaudhury, Jyoti Mirdha, Mausam Noor and Anu Tandon (all Congress), Supriya Sule (NCP) and Shatabdi Roy (Trinamool).