Shimla: Out of 24 women candidates, only one was able to win the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly election of 2022.
The sole woman candidate who was able to win the seat is BJP leader Reena who won the election from Pachhad.
Reena defeated Congress’ Dayal Pyari by a margin of 3,857 votes. As many as 21,215 voters voted for Reena while 17,358 voted for Dayal Pyari. She also faced competition from Congress rebel Ganguram Musafir who contested the elections as an independent candidate.
Reena was first granted the ticket from Pachhad in 2019 by-elections in which she became the winning candidate. That time, the seat was vacated after State BJP President Suresh Kashyap won the Member of Parliament (MP) elections from the Shimla seat.
As many as 412 candidates contested the elections out of which 24 were women. Big names like Congress leader Asha Kumari and Cabinet Minister Sarveen Chaudhary also lost their seats.
In 2017, only four women were able to win the election including Asha Kumari, Sarveen Chaudhary, Rita Devi and Kamlesh Kumari. It is to be noted that Himachal Pradesh has never had a woman Chief Minister ever since the state came into existence.
