Seven women candidates in fray in Yamunanagar district
Seven women candidates are contesting the Assembly election in Yamunanagar district. Interestingly, the BJP has not fielded any woman candidate from any Assembly constituency of Yamunanagar district this time.
From 1962 to 2019, only four women political leaders-Shanno Devi, Dr Kamla Verma, Dr Krishna Pandit and Renu Bala became MLA from here six times.
Yamunanagar became a district in 1989, before which it was a part of Ambala district. At present, this district has four Assembly constituencies – Sadhaura, Jagadhri, Yamunanagar and Radaur.
According to information, not a single woman candidate is contesting the Assembly election from Radaur Assembly constituency of the district in the current Assembly election.
Three women candidates, Congress candidate and sitting MLA Renu Bala, Aam Aadmi Party candidate Reeta Rani and Independent candidate Pooja Nagra are contesting from the reserved Sadhaura Assembly constituency.
Two women candidates, Nirmaljit Kaur of the Indian Praja Congress and Kanchan of Bhartiya Shakti Chetna Party are in fray from the Yamunanagar Assembly constituency.
Similarly, Afshan Akram, an Independent candidate and Soni of the Indian Praja Congress are contesting from Jagadhri Assembly constituency.
From 1977 to 2019, only one woman leader Renu Bala was elected as an MLA from Sadhaura Assembly constituency.Renu Bala is a Congress leader and the party has fielded her from this reserved Assembly constituency this time too.
Similarly, from 1962 to 2019, only one woman candidate Shanno Devi became an MLA from Jagadhri Assembly constituency. Shanno Devi, the first and the only woman Speaker of Haryana Legislative Assembly, represented the Jagadhri Assembly constituency from 1962 to 1966.
No woman MLA was elected from Chhachhrauli Assembly constituency (now this Assembly constituency is a part of Jagadhri Assembly constituency since 2009) from 1972 to 2005.
Yamunanagar Assembly constituency gave two women MLAs – BJP’s Dr Kamla Verma who became the MLA thrice in 1977, 1987 and 1996 and Congress’ Dr Krishna Pandit who was elected as an MLA in 2005.
Similarly, no woman MLA was elected from Radaur Assembly constituency from 1977 to 2019.
Sitting Sadhaura Congress MLA Renu Bala, who is contesting election on Congress ticket from Sadhaura Assembly constituency this time said that political parties should give tickets to more and more women to ensure their participation in politics.
“Although the number of women is continuously increasing in the political field, there is a need to increase this number further,” said sitting Congress MLA Renu Bala.