Few women make it to assemblies in four state polls

Only a few women leaders have managed to secure a place in the four state assemblies, the results for which were declared today, with the number of female MLAs remaining in single-digits for three states.
As many as 69 women candidates contested from the 70 seats in Delhi, but only three could secure a win. Interestingly, all three elected candidates are from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which fought its first elections.
They include Rakhi Birla, Bandana Kumari and Veena Anand, while the party's spokesperson Shazia Ilmi lost by an ultra- thin margin of 326 votes.
In the biggest upset, Delhi's record-three-term Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit could not save her seat and was defeated by Arvind Kejriwal by a huge margin of more than 25,000 votes.

In Madhya Pradesh, more than 25 women candidates have managed to win from their seats. The state saw nearly 100 women leaders fight the elections for 230-member strong assembly.
Rajasthan and Chhatisgarh saw seven women leaders each win from their assembly seats. A total of 103 women candidates were in the fray in the 200-strong Rajasthan assembly. BJP' chief ministerial candidate Vasundhara Raje Scindia won by about 61,000 votes, while leading her party to a historic win.
Six out of the seven new women MLAs in Rajasthan are from BJP, which also accounts for a large number of female leaders who have come victorious in Madhya Pradesh.

In Chhattisgarh, Congress leader Renu Jogi, wife of former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, won from Kota.