In the last 55 years, only 40 women have made it to the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly, and since 1967, the number has never crossed 10% of the total strength of the House, as analyzed by CNN-News18 shows. According to official figures given.
In 1967, when women entered the electoral battle with two women in the state, none reached the House. Election Shows commission (EC) data. At least 206 women have contested assembly elections in the state since 1967, and of these, only 40 have made it to the House – about 20%. On the other hand, over 50% – 105 – have lost their deposits in the polls, data from the Election Commission showed.
The 68-member Assembly saw the highest number of women elected to the House in 1998, when Election Commission data showed that six women had won the election. Except in 2007, when five women were elected, and in 1998, the House has seen fewer than five women elected in each election.
A record number of women were in the fray in the 2012 assembly elections. Of these 34, only three made it to the House, while 22 lost their bail. In 2017, 19 women were in the fray and of these, four made it to the House.
The state has not seen any woman chief minister since its formation. Voting in the Himachal Assembly is to be held on November 12 and the counting of votes will take place on December 8. This time only 24 women are contesting in the state, which is slightly higher than the number in 2017.
This time out of the 24 women in the fray, six are from the Bharatiya Janata Party, while five are independents. Congress has named three women in its list. This time the Aam Aadmi Party, which fielded five women, is also in the fray.
In the last assembly elections in 2017, BJP got 44 seats, while Congress got 21 out of 68 seats.
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