Only 43 women contested LS elections in Orissa in 53 years

Only 43 women have so far contested LS polls in Orissa during the last 53 years accounting for a meagre 3.06 per cent.

Strange though it may seem, only 43 women have so far contested Lok Sabha elections in Orissa during the last 53 years accounting for a meagre 3.06 per cent of the total 1402 aspirants who fought the last 13 electoral battles.

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And only five of them made it to the lower house since 1952. They are Jayanti Patnaik (thrice), Sangeeta Singh Deo (twice), Frida Topno (twice), Sushila Tiriya (twice) and Hema Gamang (once).

Not a single woman had contested the Lok Sabha elections in the state in 1952, 1957 and 1962. For the first time a woman contestant entered the Lok Sabha poll fray in the state in 1967.

But their number never touched double digits with the highest being nine in 1998 and in the present polls.

The break-up of women contestants after 1967 are two (1971), one (1977), two (1980), two (1984), four (1989), six (1991), eight (1996), nine (1998) and eight (1999).

It took a woman 30 years to break the ice when Congress candidate Jayanti Patnaik, wife of present PCC chief J.B.Patnaik, won a by election from the Cuttack Lok Sabha constituency in 1981. She defeated Lok Dal's Rabi Ray by a margin of 49,852 votes after the seat was vacated by her husband who became the Chief Minister.