Gujarat elected only 111 women to state Assembly since 1962, will 2022 bring change?

ECI data has revealed that women candidates in Gujarat Legislative Assembly has never crossed 10% of the total candidates

As all eyes are set on the results for Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections, a look at the number of contesting candidates have thrown up various interesting facts. While ECI data has listed out the candidates and their assets, criminal cases against them and more, the data also brings to fore the fact that the representation of women in the state has been a dismal one, with only 111 women women going to the state Legislative Assembly since the first polls were held in the state in 1962, data by the Election Commission of India has revealed.

The Assembly elections 2022 in Gujarat saw as many as 1,621 contestants who are vying for 182 seats in the state. Out of them, just 139 candidates are women, the ECI data has revealed.

However, the vast disparity between male and female candidates in Gujarat is not a new phenomenon. Past data from the ECI has revealed that women candidates in Gujarat Legislative Assembly has never crossed 10 per cent of the total numbers.

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Data analysis in a report by News18 had revealed that 13 women were elected as candidates in the 2017 Assembly elections. In 1962, when the first elections were held in the state, there were 11 women candidates elected to the House whereas the number in 2017 rose to just 2 at 19.

According to data, in 1972, only one woman was elected which was the lowest ever in the House. However, the highest number of women elected in the House was 16, which happened in 1985, 2007 and 2012.

The ECI data showed that women comprise of almost 50 per cent of voters in the state but despite the figures, major parties in Gujarat, BJP and Congress have fielded only a few women candidates as has been the pattern in the state ever since the state begun holding elections.

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The BJP has this time fielded 18 women for the polls as against 12 in 2017, followed by 14 women nominated by the Congress party. The party had fielded 10 women in the last Assembly elections. The Aam Aadmi party, which is in the fray in Gujarat this time, hav given tickets to only 6 women this time.

The state of Gujarat has also seen only one chief minister so far, Anandiben Patel in 2014. Patel took over as the chief minister of the western state after Narendra Modi was elected as the Prime Minister after the Lok Sabha polls when the BJP came to power in the centre.

Will Gujarat welcome more women in the House or not will be only revealed once the results for the Assembly polls come out on December 8 when the fate of the 139 female candidates will be decided along with the other 1,482 candidates in fray.