Two women win Assembly polls in Arunachal Pradesh

Itanagar: In a state where women voters outnumber males, only two women could make it to the 60-member Assembly from among the total seven who had contested this time.

The two winning candidates Karya Bagang (Chayangtajo) and Gum Tayeng (Dambuk) are from the ruling Congress.

Both won the seats for the second term.

While Bagang polled 4343 votes (74.8 per cent), Tayeng secured 5473 votes(55.3 per cent).

Women who lost the hustling include Toko Sheetal of PPA from Itanagar constituency, Debia Tara (BJP) and Taba Nirmali from Yachuli, NPF candidate Pike Pulu from Lekang and Independent Yai Mara from Likabali.

Mara had unsuccessfully contested from the constituency in 2009.

Mara and Nirmali occupied the second place this time polling 2972 votes (34.7 per cent) and 6615 votes (47.7 per cent) respectively in their constituencies.

Tara polled only 569 votes (4.1 per cent), followed by Sheetal who got 418 votes (1.2 per cent) and Pulu with 236 votes (1.8 per cent) respectively.

Despite their willingness to join politics most of them failed to win because of the patriarchal nature of society in the state.

The state has 3,77,272 female voters against 3,75,898 males, with women outnumbering men in several assembly constituencies.

Sibo Kai was the first woman legislator of the state after she was nominated to the assembly in 1978 when the state was an Union Territory and Nyari Welly was the first elected MLA of the state.

Welly was first elected from Seppa constituency on a PPA ticket in 1980 and re-elected in 1984 from the same constituency as a Congress candidate.

Independent candidate Komoli was elected from Nampong constituency in 1984 and re-elected from the same constituency as a Congress nominee in 1990. O M Deori was also elected from Lekang in the same year.

The other women MLAs of the state include Yadap Apang (Congress) who won from Pasighat in 1995, Mekup Dolo (1999) as an independent candidate from Seppa, Congress candidate Niani Natung from Pakke-Kessang during 2001 by election, Yari Dulom from Daporijo during 2002 by- poll and independent candidate Nang Sati Mein from Namsai during 2009.