Pune/Mumbai: For an election fought primarily on women empowerment issues, largely the Ladki Bahin Scheme, only 8.8% women candidates (363) were in the fray, and even fewer have won. Just 22 women will be a part of the new assembly, down from 24 in 2019.
Of the 55 women fielded by the two major blocs in the state, 21 Mahayuti candidates and one Maha Vikas Aghadi nominee won. There were 4,136 candidates in this year’s election, of which 363 were women — slightly higher than the 235 women fielded in 2019. With 39 candidates, Mumbai topped the chart, followed by Thane (33), Pune (21), Nashik (20) and Nagpur (16).
In Mumbai, out of the 11 women candidates fielded by major political parties, only four secured victories. BJP’s Manisha Chaudhary and Vidya Thakur, both incumbent MLAs, successfully retained their strongholds in Dahisar and Goregaon, respectively.
For the two women, this will be their third consecutive term as BJP MLAs.
Meanwhile, Congress nominee and debutant Jyoti Gaikwad, sister of Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad won the Dharavi seat keeping it yet again in the family itself.
Debutant Sana Mallik also clinched a win in Anushakti Nagar, stepping into the political arena by taking over her father Nawab Malik’s seat. Nawab Malik, however, lost the Anushakti Nagar seat which he was contesting against Samajwadi party’s Abu Asim Azmi.
However, Yamini Jadhav, the incumbent MLA from Byculla, faced her second defeat in six months. Earlier, she had lost the Mumbai South Lok Sabha seat to Sena’s Arvind Sawant. In Jogeshwari East, debutant Manisha Waikar, wife of recently elected Mumbai North west MP Ravindra Waikar, lost the seat to UBT Sena’s Anant Nar. In Versova, too, incumbent two-term MLA and BJP’s Bharati Lavekar lost to Shiv Sena UBT Haroon Khan.