Disappointment for women, jubilation for Marathi bloc

Only seven out of the 17 women candidates from Maharashtra were elected as Members of Parliament in this election The state saw the maximum number of women in the main contest but less than half succeeded Meanwhile the Marathi bloc rejoiced as Mumbai got five Marathi MPs this time more than any election in recent history The city had a straight fight between Marathi candidates for four seats The only nonMarathi MP is from the BJPOnly seven out of the 17 women candidates from Maharashtra were elected as Members of Parliament in this election The state saw the maximum number of women in the main contest but less than half of them succeeded Four of the women MP were contesting on Congress tickets while two were from BJP and one from NCPDuring this election 16 of the 48 Lok Sabha constituencies witnessed electoral battles involving women candidates including one in Baramati where sistersinlaw Supriya Sule and Sunetra Pawar faced off In the 2019 general election 11 women in in Maharashtramdashmostly from political familiesmdashwere in the race and eight went on to become MPsShinde Sena man Ravindra Waikar won the Mumbai North West seat by a narrow margin PicSatej ShindeThere were two major alliances comprising six political parties in the fray The Mahayutimdashwhich includes the BJP Shiv Sena Shinde faction and NCPmdashhad 10 women candidates in total while the Maha Vikas Aghadi MVAmdashcomprising Congress Sena UBT and NCP SPmdashwas fielding seven womenThe BJP contesting 28 seats in the state had given tickets to six women Of these only twomdashSmita Wagh from Jalgaon and Raksha Khadse from Ravermdashwon with a margin of more than 25 lakh votesThe Congress was in the fray for 17 seats of which four were contested by women The party had announced the Ramtek seat for Rashmi Barve but she couldnrsquot contest due to a caste certificate issue But the four women who contested on a Congress ticketmdashVarsha Gaikwad Mumbai North Central Dr Shobha Bachhav Dhule Pratibha Dhanorkar Chandrapur and Praniti Shinde Solapurmdashmade it to parliamentVarsha Gaikwad won the Mumbai North Central seat on a Congress ticket PicAtul KambleThe NCP SP declared Supriya Sule as a candidate from Baramati resulting in an interesting clash between Sharad Pawarrsquos daughter and daughterinlaw Sunetra Pawar Sule won with a margin of over 15 lakh votes after a close fight The partyrsquos woman power is concentrated in North Maharashtra because it fielded four female aspirants from thereThe Shinde Sena had declared two women candidates for its share of 15 seats while its alliance partner the NCP Ajit Pawar group contested four seats two of which had women candidates Sunetra Pawar Baramati and Archana Patil OsmanabadIn 2019 11 women candidates contested the general election and there were two constituencies in which women stood against each other Though there is reservation for women in local bodies there isnrsquot any reservation for women in the highest house of the nation despite it being in discussion for at least two decades In 2019 724 women contested the Lok Sabha election across India and 78 were voted to powermdashthe highest number to date Of these 78 parliamentarians 11 were from West Bengal and 10 from Uttar PradeshMMR situationThe Mumbai Metropolitan Region MMR with a population of 229 crore had four women candidates on 10 seats but only one succeeded MLA Yamini Jadhav contested from the Mumbai South constituency on Shinde Sena ticket but lost with a margin of over 50000 votes Sena UBT which was contesting 21 seats gave tickets to Vaishali Darekar Kalyan and Bharati Kamdi Palghar Both lost by huge margins Congress Mumbai unit president Varsha Gaikwad wanted to contest from South Central but was fielded from North Central She managed to secure a seat in parliament and is the only woman candidate to represent MMR17Total No of women candidates from stateWomen candidatesCongress 17 seats Varsha Gaikwad Mumbai North Central mdash won with 16514 margin Dr Shobha Bachhav Dhule mdash won with 3833 margin Pratibha Dhanorkar Chandrapur mdash won with 26 lakh margin Praniti Shinde Solapur mdash won with 77224 marginNCP SP 10 seats Supriya Sule Baramati mdash won with 153 lakh margin Shiv Sena UBT 21 seats Vaishali Darekar Kalyan mdash lost by 380 lakh votes Bharti Kamdi Palghar mdash lost by 183 lakh votesBJP 28 seats Smita Wagh Jalgaon mdash won with 251 lakh margin Raksha Khadse Raver mdash won with 272 lakh margin Heena Gavit Nandurbar mdash lost by 159 lakh votes Pankaja Munde Beed mdash lost by 6553 votes Bharati Pawar Dindori mdash lost by 113 lakh votes Navneet Rana Amravati mdash lost by 19731 votes Shiv Sena Shinde 15 seats Yaminin Jadhav Mumbai South mdash lost by 52673 votes Rajashree Patil Yavatmal mdash lost by 94473 votesNCP AP 4 seats Sunetra Pawar Baramati mdash lost by 158 lakh votes Archana Patil Osmanabad mdash lost by 330 lakh votes