Lucknow: No woman candidate has been able to win from Varanasi, an important parliamentary seat of Purvanchal. A total of 8 women candidates contested the elections from here, but none of them could open the account of victory. Voters of Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency have not elected any woman candidate as MP.
On the other hand, this time no political party has bet on women in the elections. A total of 17 elections have been held since this Lok Sabha constituency came into existence. Women candidates tried their luck in five of these elections, but they did not get success in any election.
Women candidates contested elections in 1996
For the first time in 1996, three women contested elections from Varanasi seat. These included Mustari, Krishna Nigam and Madina Begum. In the Lok Sabha elections, Mustari got 1962 votes, Krishna got 1294 and Madina got 664 votes.
After this, women contested in all the elections except the 1998 and 1999 elections. The first election in this Lok Sabha constituency was held in 1952, in which five male candidates were in the fray. In the 10 general elections held from 1952 to 1991, no woman tried her luck in the electoral battle.
One woman candidate each in 2004 and 2009
In the 14th Lok Sabha elections held in 2004, 18 candidates contested in Varanasi. One of them was Anjana Prakash. Anjana Prakash, who contested on the Samajwadi Party ticket, got 59104 votes. She stood fifth. In the 2009 elections, Usha Singh of Rashtriya Agrani Dal tried her luck. Usha got 721 votes.
Status of last two elections
In the 2014 general elections, 42 candidates tried their luck from Varanasi. This also included Indira Tiwari of All India Trinamool Congress. Indira got 2674 votes. In 2019, two women contested from Varanasi seat. These included Shalini Yadav and Hema Shahid. In the Lok Sabha elections, SP candidate Shalini Yadav got 195,159 votes and Hema got 1914 votes. This election was won by BJP candidate PM Narendra Modi.
Shalini got the most votes
Shalini Yadav is number one among the women who got the most votes in the history of Varanasi Lok Sabha seat. She contested the election from here on the Samajwadi Party ticket in the year 2019. She got one lakh 95 thousand 159 votes. With this, she was at number two. That year BJP candidate PM Narendra Modi was elected MP.
