Karnataka: Nearly 50% votes from women but only 5% in legislature

Women have almost closed the voting gap with men, shows data from recent elections

The rise in women voters hasn’t translated into significantly more women finding representation in the Karnataka Assembly.

Women accounted for 26.3 million votes in the recently concluded state elections, while men made for 26.6 million votes. That’s 49.7 per cent share in votes from women. Yet, women have only 5 per cent share in the Karnataka state legislature.

The 10 elected women members in a 224-seat Assembly is itself a record, though a few previous elections came close to that number. The recent low was in 2008, when women accounted for only 1 per cent of the legislature .

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