LUCKNOW Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal elected the most women MPs to the Lok Sabha, 11 each.Overall, the 17th Lok Sabha will have the highest number of women parliamentarians ever at 78.In Uttar Pradesh, the 11 women Lok Sabha members include two daughters-in-law of the Gandhi family -- Sonia Gandhi from Rae Bareli and Maneka Gandhi from Sultanpur.There were 104 women candidates in the fray in UP of whom 11 tasted victory, including eight from ruling BJP and one each from BJP ally Apna Dal (Soneylal), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress.In Rae Bareli, United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi won the seat for fourth consecutive term while Maneka Gandhi of the BJP won Sultanpur.Sonia Gandhi, the lone Congress MP elect from Uttar Pradesh secured 5.35 lakh votes defeating BJP’s Dinesh Pratap Singh by 1.67 lakh votes while Maneka Gandhi secured 4.59 lakh votes.BJP leader and actor-turned-politician Hema Malini (6.71 lakh votes) was also re-elected from Mathura.Other women candidates who won the elections included BJP leaders Sanghmitra Maurya (5.11 lakh votes) in Badaun, Rekha Verma (5.12 lakh) in Dharauhra, Rita Bahuguna Joshi (4.94 lakh) in Allahabad, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti (5.66 lakh) in Fatehpur, Keshari Devi Patel (5.44 lakh) in Phulpur, Apna Dal’s Anupriya Patel (5.91 lakh) in Mirzapur and Alliance’s Sangeeta Azad (5.18 lakh) won Lalganj.One of the biggest victories in Uttar Pradesh was of BJP’s Smriti Irani over Congress president Rahul Gandhi in the Gandhi family bastion of Amethi. Smriti polled 4.68 lakh votes.Congress had fielded 12 women candidates followed by BJP (10), SP (6), BSP (4) and Apna Dal (1).As per poll statistics, women outnumbered male voters in 34 Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh including Rae Bareli, Sultanpur, Amethi and Fatehpur.In West Bengal, two women candidates from the BJP were elected along with their nine Trinamool Congress counterparts.
