Of 221 women contestants, only 10 script poll success

•  Kavitha advocated for the Women’s Reservation Bill
•  Cong pledges for four cabinet positions for women candidates
•  Six women from Cong secure victories in the election
•  Four first-time women MLAs will enter the housethis term

Hyderabad: In the Telangana State Assembly elections 2023 results declared on Sunday, women's representation increased compared to the last term. Although women voters outnumbered men in this election, only 10 candidates emerged as winners out of 221 female candidates who were in the fray this time. Four first-time women MLAs will enter the house in this term.

While campaigning for Congress candidate Singapuram Indira in Station Ghanpur constituency, TPCC chief Revanth Reddy assured a fair representation for women, guaranteeing at least four positions in the cabinet. With six women from Congress securing victories in the election, it is intriguing to observe how many of them will assume ministerial roles and the specific portfolios they will be entrusted with.

The importance of women's representation in the legislative Assembly gained prominence following the recent passage of the Women's Reservation Bill, mandating a 33 per cent reservation of seats for women in both the Lok Sabha and State Legislatures. Despite the Act not yet being in effect, its essence seemed negligible during the election. Notably, prominent parties allocated tickets to a limited number of women candidates: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (8), Congress (10), and BJP (13). Additionally, 86 women ran as independent candidates, while others represented various parties, including the Bahujan Samaj Party, Dharma Samaj Party, and Marxist Communist Party, among others.

Compared to the last two elections, the representation of women showed improvement this time but still fell short. In the 2014 State Assembly election, out of 1,612 candidates who filed nominations, only 127 were women, and among them, nine emerged as winners. Surprisingly, none held a ministerial position in K Chandrashekar Rao’s cabinet. However, there was some improvement witnessed in 2018 with two women ministers, Sabitha Indra Reddy as Education Minister and Satyavati Rathod in charge of Tribal Welfare, Women, and Child Welfare were part of the government.

Nevertheless, despite this progress, only six women were among the 1,782 nominations filed in 2018, with 136 women contesting as candidates. Although BRS leader cum party chief daughter Kavitha advocated for the passage of women’s reservation bill in both the houses of parliament, her party allotted the least number of tickets to women candidates in this election as well.

Three first-time women MLAs include Yeshashwani Mamidala (Congress), Parnika Reddy (Congress), Lasya Nanditha Sayanna (BRS), daughter of late MLA G Sayanna, won from Secunderabad Cantonment, which is the largest military cantonment in the country.

TPCC former chief Uttam Kumar Reddy’s wife N Padmavathi Reddy (Congress) from Kodad and Kova Laxmi (BRS) are other prominent women candidates who won in this election.

Sabitha Indra Reddy, Minister in the previous BRS government defeated Andela Sriramulu Yadava from BJP by a margin of 26,187 voters.

She was MLA in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh Assembly thrice, two times from Chevella constituency in 2000 and 2005 and once from Maheshwaram. In the 2018 elections, she continued her winning streak from the same constituency from Congress, and later deserted to BRS in 2019 and became the Minister for Education in government.

Another prominent first timer Yashaswini M defeated a veteran leader Dayakar Rao from BRS in Palakurthi while the tribal face from Telangana Congress Seethakka won from Mulugu defeating Nagjyothi Bade by a margin of 33,700 votes.