Bhagalpur Politics: During the 17 Lok Sabha elections held so far in the country, a woman has won the first election from Bhagalpur Lok Sabha seat. In the subsequent Lok Sabha elections, no national or regional parties took interest in giving tickets to women candidates. The first Lok Sabha elections in the country after independence were held in 1951. In this election, Congress woman candidate Sushma Sen had won from Bhagalpur South Lok Sabha constituency.
The second Lok Sabha elections were held in 1957. There are names of three candidates in the list of women candidates from the second election to the 18th Lok Sabha election 2024. These include Rinki from CPI ML party in 2014 and Rupam Devi, an independent candidate in 2024 and an independent candidate in 1991. During the 67 years from 1957 to 2024, no major party fielded half the population.
Women standing in queue with men to vote
Even though women are not included in the candidate lists of parties. When it comes to voting, women are seen standing in queues along with men. Talking about the last two Lok Sabha elections, in 2014, 4,51,359 women and 5,22,657 men voted. Whereas in Bhagalpur Lok Sabha constituency of 2019, women and men voted almost equally.
In the first Lok Sabha elections, Bhagalpur was divided into three parts.
During the first Lok Sabha elections in 1951, Bhagalpur Lok Sabha seat was divided into three parts. Among these, the first was Bhagalpur Central, the second was Bhagalpur cum Purnia and the third was Bhagalpur Southern region. In the second Lok Sabha election in 1957, Bhagalpur South seat was transformed into Banka Lok Sabha seat. While Bhagalpur Central was made Bhagalpur Lok Sabha seat, Bhagalpur cum Purnia was made Purnia Lok Sabha seat. Congress candidate Shakuntala Devi had won from Banka Lok Sabha seat in 1957.
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