Percentage of women contestants in poll fray again fall back

New Delhi: Only 18 out of the total 164 candidates fighting the Lok Sabha election in Delhi are women, putting their share at a dismal nearly 9 per cent. Each of the major political parties -- Congress, BJP and Aam Aadmi Party -- has fielded only one woman candidate in Delhi, which goes to polls on May 12.

In 2014, 150 candidates contested the Lok Sabha polls from the national capital, of which 13 were women. Out of them, only one, Meenakshi Lekhi of the BJP, got elected. In 2009, out of 160 candidates, 18 women contested and only one got elected. The Congress has fielded its veteran leader and former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit. The BJP and the AAP have named lawyer-politician Lekhi and Atishi Marlena respectively.

Nominations of 173 candidates were found valid for the Lok Sabha polls in Delhi and on Friday, nine candidates withdrew their nomination. As many as 349 candidates had filed nominations from April 16 till Tuesday, the last date to file the papers. In Delhi, there are over 1.43 crore voters, and of these, 64 lakh are female voters, while 72 lakh are male voters. Besides, there are 669 voters belonging to the third gender.

Dikshit, the three-time chief minister, will contest from the North East Delhi seat against state BJP president Manoj Tiwari and AAP's Dilip Pandey. BJP's incumbent Lekhi will face Congress's Ajay Maken and Aam Aadmi Party's Brijesh Goyal in the New Delhi parliamentary constituency. The AAP has pitted Marlena against cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir and former Delhi minister and senior Congress leader Arvinder on the East Delhi seat.

There are ten women candidates who are fighting elections either as independents or on behalf of little known parties. Deepti Chopra from Prism Party, Richa Katiyar Kanaujia from Right to Recall Party and Suman Devi from Bharat Lok Sewak party and two others are in the fray from Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha constituency.

There is only woman candidate -- Dikshit -- from North East Delhi constituency. From the East Delhi seat, Atishi Marlena, Deepti Nadella from Pyramid Party of India, Neeru Mongia of Prism Party and Manju Chhibber of the Republican Party of India (Athawale) are fighting elections.

Two independents, Aashish Saxena and Priyanka, Meenakashi Lekhi are in the fray for the New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency. Aditi is contesting elections from the North West Delhi seat as an independent, while Poonam has filed her nomination on behalf of People's Party of India from the West Delhi.

South Delhi Lok Sabha constituency has two women candidates, Suman Yadav from Jai Maha Bharath Party and Sumedha Bodh from Jan Samman Party, who will be taking on Congress's Vijender Singh, BJP's Ramesh Bidhuri and AAP's Raghav Chadha.