India has elected 74 MPs to the 18th Lok Sabha, which is marginally lower than in 2019 when 78 women became members of the Lower House of Parliament.

Women comprised 797 candidates who contested the general elections that were held in seven phases from April 19 to June 1.

This was the first election held after the introduction of the Women’s Reservation Bill, 2023 in the Lok Sabha. The bill, which is yet to become a law, proposes the reservation of one-third of the seats in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies for women.

The results of the polls on Tuesday showed that 30 out of 69 women candidates fielded by the Bharatiya Janata Party won the elections. In 2019, the BJP had fielded 56 women candidates, of which 41 or 73.2% had won.

A total of 13 out of the 41 women candidates fielded by the Congress won the polls this year. In 2019, only six of its 52 women candidates fielded by the Congress were elected.

The election results ensured the return of 30 women MPs to the Lok Sabha.

A total of 16% of women MPs elected in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections are below the age of 40.

Some of the prominent women candidates elected to Parliament include 27-year-old Iqra Hassan who won the Kairana Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh on a Samajwadi Party ticket, and Mahua Moitra from the Trinamool Congress who has made a comeback after she was suspended from the Lower House in December.

Sanjna Jatav of the Congress was elected from Rajasthan’s Bharatpur Lok Sabha seat, which is reserved for Scheduled Castes. Geniben Nagaji Thakor from the Congress secured its first Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat in a decade. She won from the Banaskantha constituency.

280 MPs elected for the first time

The 18th Lok Sabha will also see the entry of 280 MPs who have been elected for the first time. The figure is slightly higher than in 2019, when 267 first-timers became members of the Lower House.

This time, 262 MPs had previously served in the Lok Sabha. Sixteen others were members of the Rajya Sabha.

A total of 216 sitting MPs were reelected and nine of them represented a different party in the 17th Lok Sabha. Eight others represented a party that split from their earlier party.

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