Statsguru: Four charts explain how gender-equal are India's elections

As against their nearly equal share in population (48.6 per cent), women have not yet crossed the 10 per cent barrier among candidates to the parliamentary election

Last week Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi made a promise that is yet to be achieved by any political party in India. She said that her party will ensure that 40 per cent of its candidates in the upcoming Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh (UP) are women. This begs an obvious question: How well are women represented in India’s elections? Courtesy the Ashoka University’s Trivedi Centre for Political Data, an analysis of India’s national and state elections shows the following.
 
As against their nearly equal share in population (48.6 per cent), women have not yet crossed the 10 per cent