NOT ‘fair’ Punjab

12 women in LS in seven decades

In the last seven decades, since the inception of General Election in 1951-52, Punjab has sent just 12 women to the Lok Sabha as MP. A number of them belonged to established political families.

None elected in three polls

There have been just 24 times when women have been elected to the Lok Sabha from 1951 till date. The third (1962-67), fifth (1971-77) and sixth (1977-80) Lok Sabha tenures have not seen even a single woman parliamentarian from this border state

Only One in 16th lok sabha

The women representation from the state was the highest during the 15th Lok Sabha tenure from 2009-14, when four women MPs were elected. At present (2014-19), the state has 13 parliamentary constituencies and just one woman MP

First woman MP in 1952

Subhadra Joshi of the Congress was the first woman MP from the state, who got elected from Karnal (then in Punjab) in 1952. She again became MP from Ambala (then in Punjab) in 1957. She had even defeated former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1962 in his home turf Balrampur in Uttar Pradesh 

Most successful, won 5 times

Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder of the Congress has been the most successful woman MP in the state, who got elected five times in a row from Gurdaspur in 1980, 1985, 1989, 1992 and 1996. She was, however, defeated thrice by actor-turned-politician Vinod Khanna of BJP in 1998, 1999 and 2004.

Three-time MPs

Three-time women MPs from the state are Preneet Kaur (wife of Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh) of the Congress from Patiala in 1999, 2004 and 2009; Santosh Chowdhary of Congress, twice from Phillaur in 1992, 1999 and once from Hoshiarpur in 2009.

Two-time MPs

Two-time women MPs from the state are Subhadra Joshi of the Congress, Harsimrat Kaur Badal (wife of SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal) from Bathinda in 2009 and 2014; Paramjit Kaur of SAD from Bathinda and Faridkot in 2004 and 2009, respectively; Satwinder Kaur of SAD from Ropar in 1997 bypoll and 1998.

Compiled by Archit Watts