New Delhi: Women candidates from Haryana failed to clinch even a single seat to the Lok Sabha in the recently concluded elections. All the women candidates, including Congress's Shruti Choudhury, Kusum Sherwal of Indian National Lok Dal, Nirmala of Janta Dal (United), could not take a lead and managed to get only third, sixth or seventh positions. Congress candidate from Bhiwani-Mehendergarh, Shruti Choudhury stood at the third position after being humbled by Dharambir of Bharatiya Janata Party.
For the first time in last 15 years, only ten women candidates were contesting among 230 candidates in the general elections, which accounts for less than five per cent. In Haryana, out of the 10 parliamentary constituencies, BJP clinched seven seats, while Congress candidate and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda's son Deepender managed to get one seat for the party, and INLD secured two seats.
In politically significant constituencies like Rohtak, Sirsa and Sonepat, none of the political parties had fielded even a single woman candidate. In the past, only two women candidates made it each time to Parliament on two occasions. Once in 1999, Sudha Yadav of BJP and Kailasho Devi from the INLD and the second time in 2009 Congress nominees -- Shruti Choudhury and Kumari Selja made it to the Lok Sabha.
Considered politically sensitive and the state capital Rohtak, where Deepender Singh Hooda grabbed the lone seat to Lok Sabha for Congress in the state, no political party fielded any woman candidate.
In the year 1977 two women candidates were given tickets to parliamentary seats in the state, in 1980 five women nominees, in 1984 ten women candidates were in the fray, while three women each were in electoral fray in 1989 and 1999, six each in 1991 and 1998, nine in 1996, and in the year 2004 only eight women candidates had been given the tickets by different political parties. Chandravti was the first women from the state to reach the Lower House in the year 1970 as a member of Janata Party.
In the 15th Lok Sabha, there were two women Congress MPs from the state - grand daughter of former chief minister Bansi Lal, Shruti Choudhry, and Kumari Selja from Amabala. Shruti represent the Bhiwani Mahendergargh constituency but this time she too failed and got only 2,68,115 votes and stood at third place. Selja resigned from the Ambala seat in January this year.
Haryana has the dubious distinction of having the worst male-female ratio among all states, which stands at 879 females per 1,000 males, according to the Census 2011 report. The total population of state is 2,53,53,081 and among them 1,35,05,130 are male and 1,18,47,951 female.
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