Only three women elected to Himachal assembly

Women, who voted overwhelmingly and exceeded men in the polling for Himachal Pradesh assembly, fared poorly in the elections with just three candidates making it to the 14th Vidhan Sabha.

There were 26 women in the fray including seven from the Bharatiya Janata Party and four from the Congress but only three candidates, Congress leaders Vidya Stokes and Asha Kumari, and BJP leader Sarveen Chowdhary won the elections.

The defeated women candidates include the three sitting BJP membes -- Renu Chaddha, Urmil Thakur and Vinod Chandel.

As many as 33.49 lakh voters including 16.47 lakh men and 17.02 lakh women had exercised their franchise in the polling on November 4.

The performance of Independents was impressive as five out of 106 independents in the fray won the polls while they finished second in five other constituencies.

In 2007 polls, only three independents had won. All of them sought re-election on BJP tickets and lost.

The Himachal Lokhit Party, which fielded 36 candidates, won only one seat while it cornered a sizable number of votes in seven other constituencies.

However, the Communist Party of India – Marxist, which contested 16 seats and was banking on its victory in the recent Shimla municipal polls, drew a blank.

The Bahujan Samaj Party, which had one seat in the last elections, failed to open its account. All other parties which entered the fray this time met the same fate.