Only three women make it to Assembly

Of the 70 seats in the Delhi Assembly,only three have been won by women candidates — all three are from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). While women constitute 48 per cent of the total electorate in Delhi,the BJP and Congress fielded only five and six women candidates respectively. The AAP fielded five women candidates.

Among the AAP’s women candidates was Rakhi Birla,26,who defeated four-time Congress MLA Raj Kumar Chauhan from Mangolpuri. The seat is one of the total 12 reserved constituencies,most of which have remained Congress strongholds for years. On Sunday,AAP claimed nine of those 12 seats,while two went to the BJP and the Congress managed to retain one.

Birla worked as a journalist with Jain TV before quitting her job to join the 2011 Jan Lokpal movement. Her father was a Congress supporter before joining Arvind Kejriwal’s movement.

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Bandana Kumari,39,won on the AAP ticket from Shalimar Bagh. A graduate from B R Ambedkar University in Muzaffarpur in Bihar,Kumari beat BJP’s Ravinder Nath Bansal by 10,651 votes.

The other winner was Veena Anand,47,who defeated BJP’s Poornima Vidyarthi from Patel Nagar constituency,a seat otherwise divided between thee Congress and BJP.