New Delhi,May 18: Except in 1996 and 1998, Delhi has never sent more than one woman and sometimes none to the Lok Sabha to represent the capital.
Of the 17 women contestants in the fray in the recently held elections, Congress candidate Krishna Tirath is a lone woman who has been elected to the 15th Lok Sabha to raise the voice of strong 1.1 crore electorate, including over 49 lakh woman voters, in Parliament.
The sitting MP from erstwhile Karol Bagh Lok Sabha seat has defeated her nearest rival Meera Kanwaria of the BJP in the reserved constituency, Northwest Delhi.
Apparently doubting their winnability factor, the national parties have never given tickets to more than one woman in the Lok Sabha elections except in 1998 and 1996.
In 1998, the Congress put its stake on two women candidates namely Meira Kumar and Sheila Dikshit from Karol Bagh and East Delhi respectively while BJP on Sushma Swaraj (South Delhi).
Ms. Swaraj and Ms. Kumar won by impressive margins defeating their male rivals while Dikshit, lost to the BJP’s Lal Behari Tewari.
In 1996, though there were a maximum of 24 woman candidates who entered the race, only Ms. Swaraj and Ms. Kumar repeated their winning performance.
Of the seven candidates in the race during the 1999 elections, only Anita Arya of the BJP from Karol Bagh (SC) managed to win.
–PTI