Srinagar, Apr 21: Amid discussions over women reservation in politics, official data shows that the number of female candidates elected to the Jammu & Kashmir Assembly has remained abysmally low.
According to data accessed by news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), since 1967, when the Election Commission of India first conducted state election in Jammu and Kashmir, only a few female candidates have managed to win Assembly elections.
As per records, only one female contested the 1967 election, but she lost.
The data shows that four women were elected in 1972-the highest-ever number of female winners in a J&K Assembly election so far. The four winners were Zainab Begum (Amira Kadal), Hajra Begum (Banihal), Nirmal Devi (Tikri), and Shanta Bharti (Jandrah Gharota). All of them belonged to Congress.
In 1977, only one female candidate, Gurbachan Kumari, won from the Bari Brahmanan constituency. In 1983, no female candidate managed to win. In 1987, Swaran Lata was the lone woman elected, again from Bari Brahmanan.
In 1996, two women managed to win their seats, with Sakina Itoo (NC) and Mehbooba Mufti (Congress) winning Noorabad and Bijbehara seats, respectively.
In 2002, two women-Suman Lata Bhagat (Congress, R.S. Pura) and Mehbooba Mufti (PDP, Pahalgam)-won their seats.
The number of female candidates in that Assembly rose to three when Kanta Andotra, wife of senior Congress leader Lal Singh, won a by-election from the Basholi constituency.
In 2008, three women-Mehbooba Mufti (Wachi), Shamima Firdous (Habba Kadal), and Sakina Itoo (Noorabad)-were elected, all from the Kashmir Valley. In 2014, the tally dropped to two, with Shamima Firdous (Habba Kadal) and Asia Naqash (Eidgah) winning their constituencies.
The tally went up to three in 2016 when Mehbooba Mufti, who was then Chief Minister, won a by-election from the Anantnag seat.
In the last Assembly election, three female candidates won: Shamima Firdous (Habba Kadal), Sakina Itoo (D.H. Pora), and Shagun Parihar (Kishtwar). Shagun Parihar is the first female from the BJP to get elected to the J&K Assembly.
The number of female MLAs in the current Assembly went up to four when Devani Rana, daughter of the late Devinder Singh Rana, won a by-election in November 2025.
It is worth mentioning that two females were also nominated as MLAs by the Governor of J&K before 2019 in line with the provisions of J&K’s Constitution.
The provision of nominating two females to the Assembly was also retained in the J&K Reorganisation Act enacted by Parliament in 2019. (KNO)
