Number of women MLAs in Assam Assembly declining

It’s is six this time against a high of 14 in 2011

Ajanta Neog. File Photo.

The number of women MLAs in the 126-member Assam Assembly has been declining from a high of 14 in 2011.

Six women were elected to the House this time — three from the BJP, two from the Congress and one from the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP).

Ajanta Neog (BJP), who won the Golaghat seat, is the most experienced among the six, having represented the constituency four times as a Congress candidate since 2001. She is the wife of former Congress leader Nagen Neog who was killed along with eight others in an ambush by the banned United Liberation Front of Asom in 1996.

Suman Haripriya ( BJP), daughter of former Union Minister Bijaya Chakraborty, retained her Hajo seat for the second time. So did Renupama Rajkhowa of the AGP (Teok) and Nandita Das of the Congress (Boko).

The newcomers are Nandita Garlosa of the BJP (Haflong) and Sibamoni Bora of the Congress (Batadrava). The latter is the daughter of former Batadrava MLA Kiran Bora and daughter-in-law of former Chief Minister Golap Borbora.

Altogether 74 women had contested in 2021, which saw Assam’s longest-serving woman MLA losing the Kokrajhar East seat by 20,095 votes.

Pramila Rani Brahma of the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) had first won the Kokrajhar East seat in 1991, as an independent. She became a Cabinet Minister in Tarun Gogoi’s Congress government and in the outgoing BJP government headed by Sarbananda Sonowal.

She was one of the 14 women elected to the Assembly in 2011, one more than in 2006. Of the 71 women who contested the 2011 polls, 48 forfeited their deposits compared to 39 out of 59 who lost their deposits in 2006.

The number of women MLAs dropped to eight in 2016. Three of them represented Congress, two each BJP and BPF and one AGP.

More for NOTA

Assam has had more takers for the none-of-the-above or NOTA option this election.

According to the office of the State Cheif Electoral Officer, 2,19,578 voters opted for NOTA across the 126 Assembly seats, working out to 1.14% of the votes polled.

NOTA had registered 1.12% of the votes polled in 2016.