There are 19 women members in the Maharashtra assembly, of these 10 are new
Bharti Lavekar and her supporters celebrate after her victory in the assembly elections. Pic/Sameer Markande
The new Maharashtra assembly has more female members in the House compared to the last time. There will be 10 new women members (in all there are 19) who are part of the assembly for the coming five years, while a woman minister who was part of the cabinet earlier, Pankaja Munde, lost to her cousin Dhananjay Munde of NCP, from the Parli seat.
While 235 women contested from the state out of the 3,237 candidates, around 39 were from the four main parties. Of them, 19 have won in these assembly elections compared to last time's 17 (the number includes the by-election winner). However, a senior BJP leader said, "More women candidates should get chances, which doesn't happen often, and there is no growth for women politicians. But our party is encouraging more female candidates and leaders."
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The BJP has 11 female winners in comparison to 10 in the 2014 assembly polls, while the number of women winners from Shiv Sena has gone up from one to two this time. While the NCP has retained their one, the Congress number has gone down from five to four.
An independent candidate, Geeta Jain from Mira-Bhayander, a BJP rebel, has also won. Mumbai has retained its numbers — five — of 2014. Varsha Gaikwad of Congress, Bharati Lavekar, Vidya Thakur and Manisha Choudhari of BJP will be accompanied by Sena's Yamini Jadhav, one of the new members in the House. Trupti Sawant had been the Sena's MLA after the 2015 by-polls. A female leader from the Sena said, "We also have been giving chances to more women in the state as our party has a separate women's cell and so women have more opportunities."
5
No. of women members of the assembly in Mumbai
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