As Delhi gears up for its Legislative Assembly elections which will be held on the 8th of February, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which is the current ruling party has released its list of candidates. The list has eight female candidates; two more than the six female candidates fielded by the party during the 2015 elections. Given below is a list of the female candidates contesting in the Delhi Elections, 2020, with a brief information on each one of them.
1. Rakhi Bidlan
Coming from a family highly involved in social causes (her great-grandfather and grandfather had participated in the Indian freedom Struggle), Bidlan represents the Mangol Puri constituency. She is the current Deputy Speaker of the Delhi Legislative Assembly. From 28 December, 2013 to 14 February, 2014, she was the Cabinet Minister of Women and Child, Social Welfare and Languages, during which time, she was also the youngest Cabinet Minister. She is also the Chairperson of the Committee on Women and Child Development, Petition, Question and Reference.
2. Bandana Kumari
Bandana Kumari will be contesting in Delhi Elections from the Shalimar Bagh constituency. She has been representing Shalimar Bagh since 2013. She has been the former President of the women’s wing of AAP, in the course of which the women’s wing had introduced 22 Gramin Sewa vehicles for females and senior citizens from Delhi metro stations to address women’s safety issue. She has held the position of the Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly before Bidlan. In the 2015 Legislative Assembly elections, she had defeated the BJP’s Rekha Gupta, and had won more votes as compared to the 2013 elections (which she had won as well).
3. Dhanwanti Chandela
Chandela will be representing the Rajouri Garden constituency. In 2017 bypoll, Shiromani Akali Dal’s Manjinder Singh Sirsa had won the elections from this constituency after AAP’s Jarnail Singh who had won in the 2015 elections had resigned. AAP’s decision to give Chandela a ticket has been met with some resistance since Chandela’s relative, Karan Chandela has been accused of having a role in the suicide of the 20-year-old woman.
4. Rajkumari Dhillon
Rajkumari Dhillon will be contesting from the Hari Nagar constituency. She joined the AAP last month, before which, she was a Congress councillor from a ward in Hari Nagar. She has replaced the AAP candidate Jagdeep Singh who had won in both, the 2013 and the 2015, elections.
5. Bhavna Gaur
Bhavna Gaur represents the Palam constituency in the upcoming Delhi Elections. She was a BJP candidate earlier in her political career, and was elected an as MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) Councillor in 1997 on a BJP ticket. After joining the AAP, she contested in the 2015 Legislative Assembly elections, and defeated BJP candidate, Dharam Dev, by a margin of 30,849 votes.
6. Pramila Tokas
Tokas represents the R K Puram constituency. She is a businessperson by profession, and had won the 2015 elections against the BJP candidate, Anil Kumar, by a margin of 19,068 votes. However, in 2015, a complaint was filed against her and her husband for allegedly assaulting a worker.
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7. Atishi
Atishi will be contesting from the Kalkaji constituency. She is an educator, policy maker and an activist. She was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and is currently a member of the AAP’s Political Affairs Committee. With an honorarium of one rupee per month she served as an Advisor to the Education Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia, till 2018 (she was removed for holding an unapproved designation). During this time, she helped design the education policies of the Delhi government. She had recently contested the Lok Sabha Elections 2019 from the East-Delhi constituency, but was defeated by Gautam Gambhir.
8. Sarita Singh
Singh will be contesting in Delhi Elections from the Rohtas Nagar constituency. She is the President of Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti, the students’ wing of the AAP. In 2018, she had contested the Legislative Assembly elections, and had defeated the BJP ‘s sitting MLA, Jitender Mahajan.
Also read: Who Were The Women In The Recent Jharkhand Assembly Elections?
The Delhi Elections are being contested by three major parties: the Aam Aadmi Party, the BJP and Congress. The voting day is due on the 8th of February, 2020 and the final counting of votes will take place on 11th of February, 2020.
