Bihar Election 2020 Results: 26 women triumph in state polls, will form 11% of the assembly strength

As per the 2011 Census, Bihar has a population of over 103.8 million, of which 48 percent or 49.6 million are women. Despite women forming almost half the state’s population, their strength in the state's legislative assembly is not well represented and actually fell from the previous legislature.

Overall, Bihar reported 57.05 percent voter turnout this election, with women (59.69 percent) leading from the front, while men reported 54.68 percent voter turnout. Women out-performed men in turnout in 166 of 243 constituencies during the 2020 polls.  

The Bharatiya Janata Party has the most (9) women elected to the 17th state legislature, followed by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (7), Janata Dal (United) (6), Congress (2) and one each from the Hindustani Awam Morcha and Vikassheel Insaan Party.  

Among these, Kiran Devi of the RJD from Sandesh constituency won with a margin of over 50,000 votes, the most, against Vijayendra Yadav of JD(U). Kiran Devi was followed by Shreyasi Singh, the BJP candidate from Jamui, winning with a margin of 41,049 votes. Singh is a 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medalist winner in women’s double trap event.

Meanwhile, BJP’s Gayatri Devi won by 1,569 votes, the closest margin for a woman candidate, against Ritu Kumar of the RJD from the Parihar constituency.