5 women MPs from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh

Hyderabad: Of the 78 women members of the Lok Sabha, the highest ever, five are from the Telugu states.

Of these, Andhra Pradesh sent four women members of Parliament. From Telangana state, there was only one woman MP: Ms Maloth Kavitha of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti.

The four YSR Congress women MPs are Vanga Geeta Vishwanath, who was earlier a Rajya Sabha member, Chinta Anuradha, K.V. Satyavathi and Goddeti Madhavi.

Along with Telgangana state, Assam, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Meghalaya and Tripura have sent one woman winner.

Eight states — Himachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Goa, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and five Union Territories including Andaman and Nicobar Islands Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Lakshwadeep and Puducherry — do will not have a single woman MP.

The BJD’s Naveen Patnaik fielded seven women candidates, of whom five won. Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal led with 11 women candidates each.

Odisha had a unique achievement. Its women MPs constitute 33 per cent of the strength from the state.

This is significant as the Women’s Reser-vation Bill, which seeks to reserve one-third (or 33.33 per cent) of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the state Assemblies, is still pending in Parliament.

While five women won from the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), two emerged victorious from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The BJD had fielded 33 per cent women contestants and the Trinamul 41 per cent, the highest.