Here are the 78 women MPs who are going to be the political face of India

India saw the highest voter turnout in history of Indian Parliamentary elections in 2019, but that is not all. The 17th Lok Sabha has the highest number of women MPs elected in the 2019 polls. In comparison, the last election data shows that in 2014, 11.23 percent of women won, and in 2019 it is around 14.58 percent. Of the 8,251 contestants in 2014, 668 were women (and 62 won), whereas the 2019 elections saw 8,049 candidates, of which 724 were women.

While we hope to see 33 percent reservation in the government being fully taken advantage of, we celebrate these women who are going to be the representative for millions of women in India.

A total of 34 women MPs in Parliament will be from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had fielded 53 women candidates. In comparison, All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) had fielded 41 percent of women candidates while Biju Janata Dal (BJD) had fielded 33 percent. Here are the women who are going to be the representatives in the Lower House.

Celebrities

Out of the 78 women who won, few are celebrities, such as Smriti Irani, Mimi Chakraborty, Hema Malini, Nusrat Jahan, and Kirron Kher.

Also read: 9 Indian women celebrities who contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections

Newbie Mimi Chakraborty, fielded by AITC, well-known model and actor from West Bengal, beat Anupam Hazra of BJP in Jadavpur. Making her debut alongside 30-year-old Mimi this year was 29-year-old Nusrat Jahan, a model and a prominent actor in the Bengali film industry, from Basirhat, West Bengal.

Smriti Irani who joined BJP in 2003 took on Rahul Gandhi in Amethi this year even though she lost to him in 2014. She managed to defeat the three-time parliamentarian from the Nehru-Gandhi family seat and Congress stronghold, Amethi.

Hema Malini like her feisty character Basanti from Sholay, rode to victory in Mathura on the BJP ticket. Kirron Kher, a familiar face on television, was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2014 from Chandigarh, and this was a repeat of the same.

Veterans

Seasoned politician Meenakshi Lekhi of BJP won from New Delhi. She is the national spokesperson of BJP, who was retained her seat from the 2014 election. Veteran Harsimrat Kaur Badal won from Bathinda, Punjab. A part of the Shiromani Akali Dal party, the 52-year-old started her political career in 2009.

Sonia Gandhi, the former President of Indian National Congress (INC) won from Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh, while Maneka Gandhi who is the Union Cabinet Minister for Women & Child Development in the Narendra Modi government, won from Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh. An animal rights activist, she has authored several books and is known for her work on maternity benefits.

Also read: Elections 2019: Will the new government keep its promises to the women of India?

Women in politics

As many as 222 women contested the polls independently. Four transgender candidates contested the elections independently. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was the only party to field a transgender nominee, but all transgender candidates lost in the polls.

While we hope for better representation in the coming years, let’s acknowledge the monumental change that has been achieved so far in the male-dominated political arena in India. Here are all the 78 women MPs aiming to represent you and your concerns in the Parliament:

West Bengal

Mimi Chakraborty, Jadavpur - AITC

Aparupa Poddar, Arambag - AITC

Locket Chatterjee, Hooghly - AITC

Pratima Mondal, Joynagar - AITC

Sajda Ahmed, Uluberia - AITC

Sougata Roy, Dum Dum - AITC

Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Barasat - AITC

Mala Roy, Kolkata Dakshin - AITC

Mahua Moitra, Krishnanagar - AITC

Deboshree Chowdhury, Raiganj - BJP

Nusrat Jahan Ruhi, Basirhat - AITC

Satabdi Roy (Bannerjee), Birbhum - AITC

Uttar Pradesh

Anupriya Patel, Mirzapur - Apna Dal

Sonia Gandhi, Rae Bareli - INC

Sanghmitra Maurya, Badaun - BJP

Keshari Patel, Phulpur - BJP

Smriti Irani, Amethi - BJP

Hema Malini, Mathura - BJP

Maneka Gandhi, Sultanpur - BJP

Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Prayagraj - BJP

Niranjan Jyoti, Fatehpur - BJP

Rekha Verma, Dhaurahra - BJP

Sangeeta Azad, Lalganj - BSP

Maharashtra

Poonam Mahajan, Mumbai North Central - BJP

Heena Vijayakumar Gavit, Nandurbhar - BJP

Bhavana Gawali, Yavatmal-Washim - Shivsena

Bharati Pravin Pawar, Dindori - BJP

Supriya Sule, Baramati - NCP

Pritam Munde, Beed - BJP

Raksha Khadse, Raver - BJP

Navnit Rana, Amravati - Independent (NCP support)

Orissa

Aparajita Sarangi, Bhubaneswar - BJP

Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo, Bolangir -BJP

Pratima Bisoyi, Aska - BJP

Rajashree Mallick, Jagatsinghpur - BJD

Manjulata Mandal, Bhadrak - BJD

Chandrani Murmu, Keonjhar - BJD

Gujarat

Bharati Ben Shiyal, Bhavnagar - BJP

Geetaben Rathva, Chhota Udaipur - BJP

Poonamben Maadam, Jamnagar - BJP

Darshana Jardosh, Surat - BJP

Ranjanben Bhatt, Vadodara - BJP

Shardaben Anilbhai Patel, Mahesana - BJP

Andhra Pradesh

Chinta Anuradha, Amalapuram - YSCRP

Goddeti Madhavi, Aruku - YSCRP

Vanga Geethaviswanath, Kakinada - YSCRP

Beesetti Venkata Satyavathi, Anakapalli - YSCRP

Madhya Pradesh

Pragya Singh Thakur, Bhopal - BJP

Sandhya Ray, Bhind - BJP

Riti Pathak, Sidhi - BJP

Himadri Singh, Shahdol - BJP

Chattisgarh

Jyotsna Mahant, Korba - INC

Gomtee Sai, Raigarh - BJP

Renuka Singh, Sarguja - BJP

Bihar

Rama Devi, Sheohar - BJP

Veena Devi, Vaishali - LJP

Kavita Singh, Siwan - JD(U)

Rajasthan

Ranjeeta Kohli, Bharatpur - BJP

Jas Kaur Meena, Dausa - BJP

Diya Kumari, Rajsamand - BJP

Tamil Nadu

Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, Thoothukudi - DMK

Thamizhachi Thangapandian (Sumathy), Chennai South - DMK

Jothimani Sennimalai, Karur - INC

Karnataka

Sumalatha Ambareesh, Mandya - Independent (BJP support)

Shobha Karandlaje, Udupi Chikmagalur - BJP

Jharkhand

Annapurna Devi, Kodarma - BJP

Geeta Kora, Singhbhum- INC

Tripura

Pratima Bhowmik, Tripura West - BJP

Haryana

Suneeta Duggal, Sirsa - BJP

Meghalaya

Agatha K Sangma, Tura - NPP

Assam

Queen Ojha, Gauhati - BJP

Kerala

Ramya Haridas, Alathur - INC

Punjab

Preneet Kaur, Patiala - INC

Telangana

Maloth Kavitha, Mahabubabad - TRS

Uttarakhand

Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah, Tehri Garhwa - BJP

Watch this space for more about these women in politics and the prominent faces you should definitely know.

Also read: Elections 2019: What women want from the new government