Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Women MPs Underrepresented in Mumbai, Major Parties Overlook Female Candidates

Mumbai: The city has witnessed women MPs such as Mrinal Gore and Ahilya Rangnekar pave the way in the Parliament.  Even after them, the elected women MPs tried to solve issues in Mumbai by raising them in the Lok Sabha. However, apart from the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, none of the major parties have given tickets to a woman candidate so far.

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Of the total 116 candidates who contested the Lok Sabha elections from Mumbai in 2019, only 15 were women, while none of them contested the Lok Sabha elections from the Mumbai South constituency. Urmila Matondkar of the Congress was contesting against BJP's Gopal Shetty from Mumbai North. 

If one had to write the history of women MPs representing Mumbai in the Lok Sabha, one has to start with the name of freedom fighter and Congress fighter leader Jayshree Raiji, who participated in the Swadeshi movement. She was succeeded by Communist Party of India leader Mrinal Gore and Janata Party's Ahilya Rangnekar. Even the opposition speaks respectfully of the parliamentary careers of the two. 

BJP's Jaywantiben Mehta has been MP thrice and Congress' Priya Dutt has been MP from Mumbai twice. But in 2024, not a single major party seems to field women from Mumbai.

21 women get tickets in assembly polls

In the 2019 assembly elections, women were given tickets in only 21 of the 36 constituencies. In Mumbai, women constitute more than 45 percent of the electorate. However, out of the 334 candidates contesting from Mumbai, only 9 percent were women. That means only 31 women were in the fray. Of these, the BJP and the Congress had given tickets to three women each, while the Shiv Sena had given tickets to only one woman, while the NCP had also given tickets to one woman. 

Mumbai's Women's Raj

• In the first Lok Sabha elections held in 1952, Jayashree Raiji, a Congress leader who was active in the freedom movement, was elected from the constituency known as Bombay Suburban.
• In the 1967 by-election from Mumbai North East, Congress' Tara Govind Sapre won. BJP's Jaywantiben Mehta was elected from the constituency in 1989.
• Jaywantiben Mehta has been elected twice from South Mumbai in 1996 and 1999.
• Ahilya Rangnekar of the Communist Party of India was elected from Mumbai North Central in 1977 and Pramila Dandavate of the Janata Party represented the constituency in 1980. Priya Dutt of the Congress was elected from this constituency in 2009.
• She was elected from North West Mumbai in the 2005 by-election after the death of Sunil Dutt. Poonam Mahajan of the BJP was elected from this constituency in 2014 and 2019.