28% of Lok Sabha seats had no woman candidate in 2024, shows ECI report

The Election Commission of India on Thursday released 42 statistical reports for the Lok Sabha (LS) elections 2024. 

The EC said its “proactive” initiative of releasing granular data “is to enhance the public trust that constitutes the underpinning of India’s electoral system” and furthers the poll body’s “policy of maximum disclosure and greater transparency”. 

The highlight of the 2024 LS election was again the better turnout of woman electors in percentage terms than men.  

But fewer women, that is 75, after Priyanka Gandhi Vadra won from Wayanad in a bypoll last month,have been elected to the 18th LS than the 78 women MPs in the 17th LS.  With the LS polls having been held months after the Parliament passed the Women’s Reservation Bill, as many as 152 of 543, or 28 per cent seats had no woman candidate.