Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Only 11 women MPs from Bundelkhand region since Independence

In 11 Lok Sabha seats of Kanpur-Bundelkhand region, only 11 women have been elected to parliament since 1951.

When Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti won from Fatehpur Lok Sabha seat in 2014 securing more than 45% votes, she became the first woman MP since Independence to get elected on a seat which gave India one of its prime ministers -Vishwanath Pratap Singh.

The victory of BJP’s Uma Bharti from the Jhansi Lok Sabha seat in 2014 was another first by a woman in 37 years. (Mujeeb Faruqui/HT File)

Faraway in Jhansi, the victory of firebrand leader Uma Bharti was another first by a woman in 37 years.

In 11 Lok Sabha seats of Kanpur-Bundelkhand region, only 11 women have been elected to parliament since 1951.

Kannauj, which became a parliamentary constituency in 1967, is the only one that has elected women candidates twice. Senior Congress leader Sheila Dikshit was the first woman MP to be elected from Kannauj in 1984. Dimple Yadav, wife of Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, was elected from Kannauj in 2012 and 2014 and is seeking a third term. In 2012, Dimple was elected unopposed from Kannauj after her husband and sitting MP vacated his seat to enter the Uttar Pradesh legislative council and take over as Uttar Pradesh chief minister. Before her, another woman candidate Pratima Chaturvedi contested the seat in 2000 and ended up on losing by a margin of 22,000 votes.

Political analyst Bhanu Sahay says, “It is an irony that Bundelkhand showed the way for political empowerment of women way back in the ‘60s. It was the time when it had two women MPs which was the golden period.”

Sushila Nayyar of the Congress won for the first time in 1962 and represented Jhansi in parliament for four terms. She won the seat last time in 1977 on a Bharatiya Lok Dal (BLD) ticket. Her contemporary Savitri Nigam won from Banda-Chitrakoot seat in 1962.

“They worked in tandem and brought a number of projects, including the medical college, to Bundelkhand. They reached this position in a deeply feudal and patriarchal society like the one we have even today,” Sahay says.

But they were last of their generation in Bundelkhand where politics became all about caste and muscle power. No wonder, two Lok Sabha seats -- Jalaun and Hamirpur -- are yet to elect a woman as an MP. Similarly, Farrukhabad hasn’t reposed faith in a woman candidate since 1952 when it was officially designated as a Lok Sabha seat. Mithlesh Kumari was the first woman to contest the seat in 2009 and stood fourth with 19.3% votes.

Kanpur elected a woman, Subhashini Ali, in 1989 while Unnao got its first woman MP Annu Tandon in 2009 who secured a record 50% votes.

In 1998, Sukhda Mishra won from Etawah on a BJP ticket.

After Sushila Nayyar, Usha Verma is the only woman politician who was elected as an MP twice in 1998 and 2009. “The number of women candidates contesting elections in this region in last 70 years has been less than 20. It is high time political parties worked together and ensured 33% representation to women,” says SP Singh, a poll analyst from Kanpur.