Over One Fifth Of Constituencies Have Zero Women Candidates, Reveals Report

Amid the ongoing general elections, a Quantum Hub’s Factsheet report has revealed that over one-fifth of the constituencies have zero women candidates. 

As India heads to phase four, the report found that there are only 170 women candidates in the fray out of the total of 1719 candidates, putting their share at 9.9 per cent state parties have fielded 19 women candidates (out of 132), followed by national parties (30 out of 226), unrecognised parties (64 out of 531) and independents (52 out of 804).

The factsheet also revealed that the BJP has the highest share of women candidates, followed by CPI(M), BSP and the INC among the national parties in phase four.

Secunderabad and Warangal constituencies in Telangana lead the way with eight women candidates each, followed by Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Singhbhum (Jharkhand), Aurangabad (Maharashtra), and Mahabubabad (Telangana) with five women candidates each.

Over a fifth of the constituencies (21 out of 96) have zero women candidates.

Arun Sudarsan, Manager of Public Policy, TQH consulting said, “Just under 9 per cent of the candidates until phase four are women. With 3 more Phases remaining, we do not expect a major change in this pattern. It is now clear that political parties will not nominate more women candidates without an external nudge.”