Only one out of 27 woman candidates won the Lok Sabha elections in Rajasthan where BJP registered a landslide victory by winning all the 25 parliamentary seats.
BJP’s lone woman candidate in the state Santosh Ahlawat, sitting MLA from Surajgarh, defeated her nearest rival Rajbala Ola of Congress, daughter-in-law of Ola family, by a margin of 2,33,835 votes in Jhunjhunu Lok Sabha seat.
Raj Bala Ola contested the elections after being elected through primary, a pet project of Rahul Gandhi to strengthen grass-roots democracy.
Her father-in-law and former Union Minister Sis Ram Ola, who died in December last year, had represented Jhunjhunu five straight times since 1996. He had also defeated Ahlawat in 2004 Lok Sabha elections with a margin of 23,355 votes.
No sitting woman MP in the state could retain her seat in elections for the 16th Lok Sabha.
Congress candidates and Union ministers Girija Vyas and Chandresh Kumari, and MP Jyoti Mirdha could not retain their Chittorgarh, Jodhpur and Nagaur seats respectively and secured second position.
Resham Malvia and Munni Devi, both Congress candidates, were also defeated by their BJP rivals on Banswara and Pali seats respectively.
Chandresh Kumari, who bagged Jodhpur seat in 2009 after defeating the then sitting MP Jaswant Singh Bishnoi by over 98,000 votes, was defeated this time by BJP’s Gajendra Singh Shekhawat by a margin of 4,10,051 votes.
Jyoti Mirdha, grand daughter of Jat leader and six-time MP Nathuram Mirdha, had won her first election in 2009 by banking heavily on her grandfather, who died in 1996, but this time she faced stiff challenge and was defeated by BJP’s C R Chaudhary by a high margin of 75,218 votes.
Girija Vyas too lost her seat with a huge margin of 3,16,857 votes. There were total 320 candidates who contested the elections on 25 seats in Rajasthan.
In 2009 elections, 31 women candidates had contested on 25 seats, but only three women leaders –Chandresh Kumari, Girija Vyas and Jyoti Mirdha — had won.
From 1952 to 2009 Lok Sabha polls, a total of 153 women candidates fought elections in the state but only 27 got elected.
Former Rajmata late Gayatri Devi was elected three times in 1962, 1967 and 1971 while Krishna Kumari of Jodhpur royal family was elected in 1971.
Source: http://zeenews.india.com/news/general-elections-2014/only-one-woman-candidate-wins-lok-sabha-poll-in-rajasthan_932657.html