Record 13 women get elected to Haryana assembly

Haryana's legislative history has a new entry - 13 women candidates have been declared elected to the new state assembly Sunday out of the record 116 who had contested.

Out of those elected, eight belong to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), three to the Congress and one each to the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC).

Five sitting legislators have been re-elected. These include two ministers - Geeta Bhukkal and Kiran Choudhary - in the outgoing Congress government. The other three re-elected are Renuka Bishnoi (HJC), Shakuntla Khatak (Congress), Santosh Chauhan Sarwan and Kavita Jain (both BJP).

The newly-elected women legislators include Santosh Yadav, Seema Trikha, Latika Sharma, Rohita Rewari, Bimla Chaudhary and Prem Lata (all BJP) and Naina Singh Chautala (INLD).

The INLD had fielded 16 women candidates, BJP 15, Congress 10, HJC 5, the Bahujan Samaj Party 6, and the Haryana Lokhit Party 12.

In past years, the highest number of women candidates in the fray was in 1996 when 93 women contested. Only four got elected.

In the 2005 assembly poll, 60 women candidates contested and 11 got elected, while in 2009, 68 women candidates were in the fray and nine of them won.

Seven women candidates out of 12 women contestants were elected in the 1968 assembly polls.