The 2024 Lok Sabha elections saw a slight decline in the number of women elected to Parliament, with only 74 women securing seats out of 797 who contested. This accounts for just 13.6% of the total 543 members in the Lower House, despite women comprising nearly 50% of India’s population. In contrast, the 2019 elections had 78 women MPs, representing 14.3% of the House.
Comparative Analysis
In 2019, 726 women contested, and 78 were elected, translating to a success rate of 10.74%. In 2024, despite an increase in women candidates to 797, only 74 won, reducing the success rate to 9.7%.
States with Best and Worst Representation
Tripura and the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu top the list for women’s representation, each with 50% of their MPs being women. Delhi ranks third, with 28.57% of its seats held by women.
West Bengal leads in absolute numbers, electing 11 women out of 42 seats, all from the Trinamool Congress (TMC). Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh each sent seven women to the Lok Sabha, though Maharashtra’s proportion is better due to having fewer total seats.
Conversely, 13 states and Union territories, including Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Ladakh, Lakshadweep, Puducherry, Jammu and Kashmir, and Goa, did not elect any women MPs. Kerala, with 20 constituencies and a high voter turnout of 71.72%, also failed to elect any women.
Party-Wise Representation
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leads with 31 elected women MPs, followed by Congress with 14. The TMC has 11 women MPs, and the Samajwadi Party has five, including Dimple Yadav, wife of party leader Akhilesh Yadav.
The slight drop in women’s representation highlights the ongoing challenges in achieving gender parity in Indian politics, even as more women participate in the electoral process.
