Bihar polls: Despite nearly equaling male voters, only 13.5% women candidates in 1st phase

Ahead of the Bihar assembly election, startling facts have come to the fore regarding the ratio of male to female candidates in the first phase of the election which is set to be held on October 28. The Election Commission's (ECI) data revealed that only 13.5% of the total candidates in phase 1 are women, i.e. out of the total of 1066 contestants from political parties combined, only 144 were women who were given the tickets. This gender inequality comes even though the number of female voters is almost equal to that of the male voters as there are over 3.4 crore female voters in Bihar as against 3.8 crore male voters.

Party wise gender ratio in Bihar election

Nitish Kumar led JDU has 19% of women candidates contesting the election, i.e. the party has given the ticket to 22 women out of the total 115 candidates, while ally BJP has 13 women contesting election out of its 110 candidates, a mere 11.8%.

The Mahagathbandhan, primarily comprising of Congress and RJD, has even fewer women candidates in the fray. The Congress has fielded six women out of the 70 candidates it is contesting while its ally RJD has given tickets to 11 women out of the 114 seats it is contesting.

The Chirag Paswan led LJP has given the highest number of tickets to women in the upcoming election. The party has fielded women on 28 out of the 134 seats it is contesting in the election.

The smaller allies of the NDA and Mahagathbandhan, such as HAM (S), which is contesting on seven seats, VIP which is contesting on 11, and CPI-M which is fighting on 19 seats, have given one seat each to female candidates.

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Bihar Election 2020

243 seats Bihar assembly is set for election in three phases - October 28, November 3 and November 7 while the counting of votes will be held on November 10. A major battle is expected between the two major alliances -- NDA and Mahagathbandhan. From the NDA fold, BJP will contest on 121 seats of which 11 seats have been allocated to its smaller allies, while the ruling JDU in coalition with BJP will contest on 122 seats of which 7 seats are allotted to Jitan Ram Manjhi's HAM, in the 243 seat Bihar assembly election. This election will see one of the allies in NDA, the LJP contesting solo as the party had differences over the seat-sharing ratio with JDU. On the other hand, Mahagathbandhan consisting of Congress and RJD will have Tejashwi Yadav as the CM face with RJD-Congress agreeing on 144:70 seat-sharing ratio along with three other Communist parties contesting on 29 seats.

(With ANI inputs)

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