Lok Sabha Elections 2024: 1,625 Candidates In First Phase, Only 134 Are Women
Voting for the first phase of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections 2024 will be held on April 19.?A total of 102 Lok Sabha constituencies spread over 21 states and union territories will go to the polling booth next week, to elect their MPs.
Candidates in first phase polls
According to the data released by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday after scrutiny and the last date to withdraw the nominations, there are 1625 candidates left in the fray.
Out of this 1491 candidates are men and just 134 are women. This means that only 8% of the candidates in the fray in the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls are female.
Six states have no women candidates
Data also showed that in the first phase, six of the 21 states/UTs --Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep, Manipur, and Tripura did not have even a single female candidate.?
Women's Reservation Bill
In September the Parliament had passed the Women's Reservation Bill, 2023 to reserve one-third of all seats for women in Lok Sabha, State legislative assemblies to women.'
However, the Act, also known as the Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act will come into effect only after a new census is published and the delimitation exercise is completed.
This has meant that even though the bill was passed before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, it has no effect on the current polls.
First phase Lok Sabha elections
In the first phase, all 39 Lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu, five in Uttarakhand, two each in Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Manipur as well as one each in Mizoram, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Island, and Nagaland will go to polls on April 19, along with the 12 of the 25 in Rajasthan and eight of 80 in Uttar Pradesh, three of 42 in West Bengal and five of 48 in Maharashtra will go to polls. The results will be announced on 4 June.?
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