Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 14: With the victory of BJP’s Devyani Rana from Nagrota Assembly seat, number of women MLAs in the UT Legislative Assembly has gone up to four.
Opposition BJP and ruling National Conference have two Oppositions MLAs each.
Besides Devyani, Shagun Parihar is another woman MLA of the BJP, who won the election from Kishtwar Assembly seat defeating NC’s strongman and former Minister Sajjad Kitchloo, now a Rajya Sabha member.
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NC’s woman MLAs are Health and Medical Education Minister Sakina Masood Ittoo and Shamima Firdous. Ittoo represents D H Pora Assembly segment in Kulgam district, while Firdous is a three-time MLA from Habbakadal segment in Srinagar city.
There has been a provision in Jammu and Kashmir for nomination of five MLAs including two women, two Kashmiri migrants, one of them a woman; and a PoJK refugee.
When the nominations are made, there will at least be three more women MLAs.
The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly had elected three women MLAs in 2008, 2014, and 2024, marking the highest female representation until now.
The share of elected women in the Assembly was 3.4 per cent in the 2008 and 2014 polls, when the strength of the House was 87. It dropped marginally to 3.33 per cent when the delimitation exercise in 2022 raised the number of elected seats to 90.
However, Devyani’s decisive win from Nagrota has increased women’s share in the Legislature to 4.44 per cent.
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