BJP Didn’T Meet 33% Quota In 21 Polls Since Women’S Reservation Bill Passage, Congress Met It Once—ADR

BJP Falls Short on Women’s Representation in Recent Elections, Congress Hits the Mark Once

Recent analysis reveals the BJP's struggle to meet the mandated 33 percent quota for women candidates across 21 elections since the Women’s Reservation Bill was passed. This scrutiny of 39,789 candidates from the last Lok Sabha elections and 20 assembly elections shows that the BJP has not once achieved this benchmark. Meanwhile, the Congress party notably succeeded in the 2024 Sikkim polls, becoming the only national party to field a third of its candidates as women.

The findings highlight that only 4,073 women candidates, or 10.2 percent, were nominated overall. Alarmingly, 28 percent of the constituencies, totaling 152, in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections featured no women candidates at all. In the 20 assembly elections, the BJP nominated 1,964 candidates, but only 217 (11.04 percent) of them were women. The highest representation came from Jharkhand at 18 percent, while Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry saw no female candidates.

In contrast, Congress presented a slightly better picture, with 229 out of 1,935 candidates (11.83 percent) being women. However, the party's performance varied significantly by region; in Jammu and Kashmir, only one woman candidate was put forward, representing a mere 3 percent of the total. Overall, the lowest percentages of women candidates were recorded in Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir at just 5 percent, while Delhi, Odisha, and Puducherry elections logged the highest at 14 percent.