Seventy-eight out of the 716 women candidates who contested the General Election have been elected to the 17th Lok Sabha. In 2014, 62 women MPs were elected.
May 23rd brought frenzy in the saffron camp and the grand old Congress bled white. I’m sure the celebration and the introspection would go on for some days but hey, let’s take out a little time for our victors—the members of the 17th Lok Sabha.
Winner by a landslide, again
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) defended their title as the single largest party in an election bout that went on for seven rounds. They secured 303 in a 542-seat contest—the fight for Vellore in Tamil Nadu was postponed.
A total of 397 MPs were elected from national parties—303 of them were from the BJP, 52 from the Congress, and 22 from Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC).
Among the state parties, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) led by MK Stalin in Tamil Nadu won 23 seats. Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSR Congress party claimed 22.
300 first-term MPs
According to PRS Legislative analysis, 300 MPs will be in Lok Sabha for their first-term—in 2014, 314 new MPs were elected.
From the outgoing Lok Sabha, 197 MPs were re-elected, 28 more than the last election. Forty-five others have been part of the previous Lok Sabhas.
Welcome the young guns
The average age of an MP is 54 years.
The 17th Lok Sabha has 12 per cent MPs below 40 years of age. This is more than that of the 16th Lok Sabha which had 8 per cent MPs below the age of 40 years.
This contradicts the longer term trend of the Lok Sabha getting older. The proportion of MPs below 40 years of age has steadily declined from 26 per cent in the first Lok Sabha.
3 out of 10 MPs are only 12th pass
Almost 27 per cent of the MPs have studied only till class 12th. In comparison, the 16th Lok Sabha had 20 per cent MPs who had studied till 12th class.
A total of 394 have at least Graduate-level education. Since 1996, at least 75 per cent of representatives of each Lok Sabha have been graduates.
Highest ever women MPs
Seventy-eight out of the 716 women candidates who contested the General Election have been elected to the 17th Lok Sabha. In 2014, 62 women MPs were elected.
The representation of women MPs in the Lok Sabha is slowly improving from 5 per cent in the first Lok Sabha to 14 per cent in the 17th Lok Sabha.
By global standards, however, India’s female political participation lags behind major democracies, including its neighbours.
According to data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the global average for women in the lower house of parliament is 18 per cent. Both Pakistan (20 per cent) and Bangladesh (21 per cent) have more women in the lower house of parliament than India.
What’s your profession? Social work, sir!
39 per cent of MPs have listed their occupation as political and social work. 38 per cent are engaged in agricultural activities and 23 per cent others are businessmen.