Women Candidates Who Lost Big In Lok Sabha Election 2019

All the song and dance around the much anticipated and speculated Lok Sabha elections has finally come to an end. We now have a clear idea of who the people of the country have chosen and who they waved their hands to say goodbye to. Among all the hoopla, one major win is that this is for the first time a total of 75 women MPs are part of the 17^th Lok Sabha as compared to last time’s 65 women MPs out of 542 seats. On the hindsight, there are several women who had great chances of winning but failed to entice the public.

Here’s a list of women candidates who raised a lot of hope but flunked in the MP contest:

1. Mehbooba Mufti

The first woman to hold the CM office in Jammu and Kashmir between 2016 and 2018 was Mehbooba Mufti. But in the Lok Sabha election to become the Member of Parliament from Anantnag, People’s Democratic Front’s Mufti lost to National Conference’s Hasnain Masoodi. The insurgency and conflict in the state that has only grown in the last couple of years has added to Mufti’s loss in the valley.

2. Atishi Marlena

There has been a lot of criticism at least in the Twitterverse around Aam Aadmi Party's Atishi Marlena’s loss from East Delhi constituency from former cricketer Gautam Gambhir of the BJP. Gambhir rode on the Modi wave and got close to seven lakh votes. Whereas Rhodes Scholar and Oxford graduate Marlena trailed in the third position with 2.19 lakh votes. The worst part of her loss is that she actually worked in the education sector in the capital city and her hard work showed in the outstanding performance that the students of Delhi’s government school showed in comparison to private school children.

3. Sheila Dikshit

Despite being the longest serving Chief Minister of Delhi and driving three electoral victories for Congress, Sheila Dikshit’s doom in politics came in 2013. This was when a new political leader, Arvind Kejriwal swept votes in assembly elections from under her nose and became the CM. She was then inducted as the Governor of Kerala and she was again compelled to resign from her position five months later. This time Dikshit has lost to BJP candidate Manoj Tiwari who has won the New Delhi constituency for the second time after 2014.

4. Krishna Poonia

International gold-medallist discus thrower and MLA from Rajasthan’s Sadulpur constituency, Krishna Poonia was one of the only four women Congress fielded as candidates in the Lok Sabha elections. Poonia contested from Jaipur Rural but she lost to BJP’s Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore by a heavy margin of 3.93 lakh votes. While Rathore received 8,20,132 votes, Poonia got 4,26,961 votes in total.

5. K Kavitha

Sitting MP from Nizamabad and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's daughter K Kavitha’s loss was a shock to everyone; she lost to BJP’s D Arvind by a margin of 71,000 votes in the constituency. Kavitha belongs to Telangana Rashtra Samithi party and her loss is a major setback to the party as it struggles to keep afloat in the state that is increasingly being won over by the BJP. Right after it was clear that she lost, Kavitha quickly took to Twitter and wrote, “Win or lose, my life is dedicated to the public.”

6. Moon Moon Sen

Moon Moon Sen might not have to worry to wake up early and fuss over her tea now that the election campaigns and all the work are over. Sen was the incumbent from Asansol but had no idea when violence broke in her own constituency. This was one of the reasons why Asansol voted her out? Instead, BJP’s Babul Supriyo snatched the constituency from her by a margin of close to two lakh votes.

ALSO READ: Women Candidates Who Won in 2019 Lok Sabha Elections

7. Tamilisai Soundarajan

BJP Tamil Nadu president Tamilisai Soundarajan was up against Kanimozhi Karunanidhi in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu. She lost to Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) candidate Kanimozhi with around 3.5 lakh votes. However, what’s worse is that she was a sour loser as after her defeat she was reported saying, “My view on the poll result is that people have done a mistake.”

8. Urmila Matondkar

Film actor and political novice Urmila Matondkar stepped into the Lok Sabha contest in the midst of all the action and joined the Congress party. She contested from Mumbai North parliamentary seat of Maharashtra but lost to BJP’s Gopal Shetty by a huge margin. While Matondkar got 2.41 lakh votes, Shetty swept 7.06 lakh votes.

There has been a lot of criticism at least in the Twitterverse around Aam Aadmi Party's Atishi Marlena’s loss from East Delhi constituency from former cricketer Gautam Gambhir of the BJP. Gambhir rode on the Modi wave and got close to seven lakh votes.

9. Priya Dutt

Priya Dutt’s nomination through the Congress party as the candidate from Mumbai North-Central constituency came as a bit of a surprise because of its delayed announcement. She was up against Poonam Mahajan of BJP and she lost to her by over one lakh votes. She was first elected as an MP from Mumbai northwest constituency in 2009. Then in 2014, she lost to Mahajan for the first time by a margin of around 1.86 lakh votes.

10. Jaya Prada

Jaya Prada surprisingly lost to Samajwadi Party’s Azam Khan in Rampur despite the fact that she joined BJP very recently. While BJP won big in Uttar Pradesh, Prada’s loss is a defining factor for the party. The fact that Khan audaciously said some vulgar remarks against Prada did not ring much of a bell with the people of Rampur as they collectively decided to vote him in. She lost to Khan by a margin of one lakh votes.

Picture credit: PTI

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