LS Polls: Assam witnesses marginal dip in female candidates

This Lok Sabha Elections has seen a marginal dip in the number of women contesting for the elections from Assam. There are 14 women candidates in fray as compared to 16 in the last polls.

The Guwahati parliamentary constituency has the highest number of female candidates. Queen Oja of the BJP, Congress' Bobbeeta Sharma, Purvanchal Janata Party (Secular)'s Mamoni Sharma and Junmoni Devi Khaund, Rubi Neog as Independent Candidates.

The Congress has put up two candidates, which is one less than in 2014, and the BJP and its alliance partner BPF one each. On the other hand, All India Trinamool Congress and SUCI (Communist) have nominated two women candidates each while National Peoples' Party (NPP), Voters Party International and Purvanchal Janata Party (Secular) have one candidate each. Four independents are also contesting.

There are two women candidates each in Silchar, Jorhat and Barpeta constituencies,  while Dhubri, Mangaldoi and Kokrajhar(ST) have one woman candidate each.

Assam has so far sent only 17 women candidates to the Lok Sabha since the first General Elections in 1952. The highest number of 16 women candidates had contested in 2014.