E-Paper
Only 11 female MPs in Madhya Pradesh since 1957
Madhya Pradesh, currently ruled by a woman CM, has elected only 11 female MPs in the 47 years since the 1957 general elections.
Madhya Pradesh, India's largest state till just four years ago, has elected only 11 women MPs in the 47 years since the 1957 general election.
Ironically, Madhya Pradesh is ruled by a woman chief minister - Uma Bharati of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - and has repeatedly voted for famous politicians like the late Vijayaraje Scindia, also of the BJP.
Clearly, this has not moved the electorate in the state, even though women have contested in all the general elections barring the one in 1977, after former prime minister Indira Gandhi lifted the emergency.
And 17 of the present 29 constituencies have never voted for a woman.
This election is no different with only 17 women in the fray for elections due on May 5 and 10.
During the 1957 elections Madhya Pradesh had 27 constituencies. This increased to 32 in the elections of 1962 and to 37 in 1967.
The number of constituencies was increased to 40 in 1977 and remained the same till 1999. The following year Chhattisgarh was carved out of Madhya Pradesh and 11 of the 40 went to Chhattisgarh.
In 1957, three women made it to the Lok Sabha, lower house of parliament, from the state. In 1962, four women were elected. This was halved to two in 1967 and stayed at that low in 1971 and 1980 (with no women contesting at all in 1977).
Even this was reduced to one in 1984 and increased to three in 1989 and four in 1991, 1996 and 1998.
In the last election in 1999, only two women were elected.
The late Vijayaraje Scindia created a record of sorts by winning eight times. She successfully contested from Guna in 1957, 1967, 1989, 1991, 1996 and 1998. Scindia won from Gwalior in 1962 and from Bhind in 1971.
Chief Minister Uma Bharati started her political career from Khajuraho constituency in 1984 but lost to Vidyawati Chaturvedi of the Congress. She won from there in 1989 and continued her winning spree in 1991, 1996 and 1998. Uma Bharati moved to Bhopal in 1999.
Like her, BJP's Sumitra Mahajan, currently minister in the central government, has also won from Madhya Pradesh five times in a row.
She won from Indore for the first time in 1989 and continued winning in the subsequent elections till 1999.
Sahodara Rai of the Congress has the distinction of being a parliamentarian from Madhya Pradesh four times. The first time she won was from Sagar in 1957. She successfully contested from Damoh in 1962.
She again returned to Sagar in 1971 and emerged victorious. She won from there in 1980 as well.
Congress' Vimla Verma, Maimoona Sultan and Vidyawati Chaturvedi have all made it to parliament twice.
Verma represented Siwni twice in 1991 and 1998. Sultan won from Bhopal in 1957 and 1962 while Chaturvedi won from Khajuraho in the elections of 1980 and 1984.
Girija Kumar, Alka Nath and Jamuna Devi from the Congress and Jaishree Banerjee from the BJP have made it to parliament once.
While Girija Kumar won from Shahdol in 1967, Alka Nath won from Chhindwara in 1996 and Jamuna Devi from Jhabua in 1962. Banerjee had won from Jabalpur in 1999.
