Rajasthan Assembly polls: 189 women candidates in fray; Kiran Maheshwari from BJP; Girija Vyas from Congress among key faces

Jaipur: A total of 189 women candidates, including 50 from the BJP and the Congress, will be contesting the upcoming Rajasthan assembly elections, the highest number in the last 10 years. [caption id=“attachment_5608641” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] After at least 579 candidates withdrawing their nominations for the 7 December elections on Thursday, 2,873 candidates have been left in the fray. Of the 189 women candidates, 23 are from the ruling BJP and 27 are from the Congress. The BJP has fielded sitting MLAs Anita Bhadel, Kiran Maheshwari, Anita Singh, Sushil Kanwar, Manju Baghmar, Kamsa, Suryakanta Vyas and chief minister Vasundhara Raje, among others. Sitting MLA Shakuntala Rawat, former Union minister Girija Vyas, discus thrower and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Krishna Poonia, former MLA Zahida Khan are among the Congress’ candidates contesting the elections. Since Rajasthan’s first assembly elections in 1952, which saw only four women contesting, there has been a nearly 50-fold increase in the number of female candidates. It is also the highest number of women candidates contesting in the last 10 years with 69 in 1998, 118 in 2003, 154 in 2008 and 166 in 2013.