Women to have only 10 per cent vote in presidential contest

Only nine per cent of the 4,852 MPs/MLAs who will be voting in India’s next President are women, a new report by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has found. The share of women vote in the July 17 election is no more than 10 per cent, which translates into 1,09,708 votes, the ADR study, compiled in association with National Election Watch, says.

The joint study analysed affidavits filed by 4,852 candidates, who will have 10,91,472 votes among themselves. Four thousand eight hundred and ninety-six MPs/MLAs will be eligible to vote in the presidential contest, the study notes.

In all, nearly 11 lakh votes (10,98,903) will be cast to decide India’s next President between NDA’s candidate Ram Nath Kovind and the Opposition’s Meira Kumar.

The comprehensive study further says that women representation in Lok Sabha (12 per cent) and Rajya Sabha (10 per cent) is slightly higher than the corresponding number in legislative assemblies (Nine per cent).

Among states and UTs, the Uttar Pradesh assembly has maximum women votes, the number standing at 8,320 for 40 elected representatives who are women. After Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh (6,191 women votes) and West Bengal (4,192 votes) have the highest number of female votes, the report says.

The report also found that 33 per cent of the elected representatives, or 1,581 members, in both the Parliament and state/UT assemblies, had declared criminal cases against them.

“184 (34%) out of 543 Lok Sabha MPs, 44(19%) out of 231 Rajya Sabha MPs and 1353(33%) out of 4078 MLAs analysed from all states have declared criminal cases against themselves,” the report said.

The President of India is chosen through an electoral college, comprised of elected members from the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and state\UT assemblies. While all MPs and MLAs cast a vote each, the value of their vote is same as the average number of people they represent.

The full report can be read here.