Trinamool sends highest proportion of women to Lok Sabha

The 18th Lok Sabha will have over 13.44% women MPs, one of the highest proportions since 1952.

Trinamool Congress, which secured the majority in West Bengal, has pushed for 38 per cent women’s representation from her party in the 18th Lok Sabha.

It is an eclectic mix ranging from investment bankers such as Mohua Moitra; steadfast loyalists like Sajda Ahmed and Mala Roy; professionals such as Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Sharmila Sarkar; actors such as June Maliah, Racha Banerjee, Satabdi Roy and Sayoni Ghosh; and other leaders such as Mitali Bag and Pratima Mondal.

In 25 out of the 42 constituencies in West Bengal, women outnumbered men. In 15 of these 25 seats, it also played a key role in the party’s win.

Trinamool’s first delegation to the Lower House comprised two women out of eight MPs. Apart from party founder Mamata Banerjee, Subhas Chandra Bose’s brother’s daughter-in-law Krishna Bose was the other parliamentarian in 1999. In 2019, Banerjee had nominated 17 women in the 42 seats.

Major names gracing the Parliament now would include Kangana Ranaut and Hema Malini from the BJP, Supriya Sule from the NCP, Sharadchandra Pawar, and Misa Bharati from the RJD, among others. This year, there will be some young faces, with 25-year-olds Shambhavi Choudhary of the LJP, Priya Saroj of the Samajwadi Party, and Sanjana Jatav of the Congress entering Parliament.

"The women-centric schemes that help the poorest of women in Bengal’s villages to the representation that we give to women in the highest chamber of Indian democracy, everything represents our commitment to women and their upliftment,” Trinamool Congress spokesperson Sukhendu Sekhar Roy told Times of India.

According to Election Commission of India data, the 18th Lok Sabha will have over 13.44% women MPs, one of the highest proportions since 1952. The 17th Lok Sabha had the most women MPs at 78, which was over 14% of the total. The 16th Lok Sabha had 64 women members, while the 15th one had 52.

According to reports, women constituted 48.41 % of India’s population in 2022.