20 women post win in Rajasthan Assembly polls

Jaipur: At least 20 women candidates have posted victories in the Rajasthan Assembly Polls, nine each from BJP and Congress and two Independents.

BJP had given tickets to 20 women candidates, that is 10 per cent of the total candidates while Congress gave tickets to 28 women candidates, i.e 14 per cent of the total candidates, much below the promise of 33 per cent reservation brought in by Nahi Shakti Adhiniyam passed in the Parliament recently.

The female voter turnout was slightly higher this time, recording 74.72 per cent, while male voter turnout stood at 74.53 per cent. In 2018, the female voter turnout was 74.66 per cent, around one percent more than male voter turnout of 73.80 per cent.

In 2018, Congress had given 23 tickets to women candidates and BJP to 24 candidates. The outgoing 15th Assembly had 24 women members, 12 from Congress, 10 from BJP, one from Rashtriya Loktantrik Party and one Independent.

One of the biggest winners in the entire elections is BJP’s Diya Kumari, erstwhile princess of Jaipur royal family, who won over Congress’s Sitaram Agarwal by 71,368 votes.

BJP’s other royal gambles have also paid off with Vasundhara Raje winning the traditional bastion of Jhalarapatan over her nearest rival Ramlal Chouhan by over 51,193 votes. Bikaner's erstwhile princess Siddhi Kumari has won from Bikaner (East) over Congress’s Yashpal Gehlot by over a margin of 19,303 votes.

Another royal scion, Kota’s Kalpana Devi won by over 25,552 votes over Congress’s Naimuddin Guddu in Ladpura.

Other BJP winners are late BJP leader’s daughter Deepti Kiran Maheswari from Rajsamand, Shobha Chauhan from Sojat, Nauksham Choudhary from Kaman, Dr Manju Baghmar from Jayal and Anita Bhadel from Ajmer (South).

Congress’s winners include Shimla Devi from Aupgarh posting a win by a margin of 37881 votes. Others include Indra Meena from Bamanwas, Geeta Barwar from Bhopalgarh, Shikha Meel Barala from Chomu, Shobharani Kushawa from Dholpur, Anita Jatav from Hindaun, Ramila Khadija from Kushalgarh, Rita Choudhary from Mandawa and Sushila Rameshwar Dudi from Nokha.

Two Independents who have won are Dr Rita Banawat from Bayana and Priyanka Choudhary from Barmer.

In this poll, seven constituencies Sadulpur, Jayal, Kaman, Ajmer (South), Hindaun, Bhopalgarh and Anupgarh witnessed a direct fight between women contestants.

In all, at least 183 women candidates were in the fray out of the total of 1,863 candidates.