23 out of 288: women form tiny minority in new Maha Assembly

In the newly-elected 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, there would be only 23 women, eleven of them sitting legislators.

It is still an improvement over 2014 when only 16 women were elected to the lower house.

The sitting legislators who were elected on Thursday were Manda Mhatre (from Belapur), Manisha Chaudhari (Dahisar), Vidya Thakur (Goregaon), Devyani Farande (Nashik Central), Seema Hiray (Nashik West), Madhuri Misal (Parvati), Monica Rajale (Shevgaon) and Bharati Lavhekar (Versova).

All eight MLAs are from the BJP.

Congress MLAs Praniti Shinde (Solapur City Central), Yashomati Thakur (Teosa) and Varsha Gaikwad (Dharavi-Mumbai) also retained their seats.

NCP MLA Suman Patil too retained her Tasgaon- Kavathe Mahankal seat.

The newcomer women legislators are Saroj Ahire (Devlali) of the NCP, Lata Sonavane (Chopda) and Yamini Jadhav (Byculla) of the Shiv Sena; Shweta Mahale (Chikli), Meghana Bordikar (Jintur), Namita Mundada (Kaij), Mukta Tilak (Kasba Peth); and Congress' Pratibha Dhanorkar (Warora) and Sulbha Khodke (Amravati).

Two independents -- Geeta Jain (Mira Bhayander) and Manjula Gavit (Sakri) have also won.

The prominent loser among women leaders is the state minister and BJP leader Pankaja Munde who lost from Parli.

Among 3,237 candidates, there were 235 women.