New Delhi: Nearly three years after Parliament passed the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam (Women’s Reservation Bill), women continue to remain significantly underrepresented among electoral candidates, according to a new analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
The study examined 39,789 candidates who contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and 20 Assembly elections held across states and Union Territories after the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in 2023. It found that only 4,073 candidates, or 10.2 per cent, were women.
The findings highlight a substantial gap between the constitutional goal of enhancing women’s political participation and the actual distribution of election tickets by political parties.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, held after the enactment of the Women’s Reservation Bill, only 800 out of 8,360 candidates were women, accounting for 9.6 per cent of the total contestants.
The analysis also revealed that 152 of the country’s 543 parliamentary constituencies, nearly 28 per cent, had no women candidates in the fray.
Similarly, in the 20 Assembly elections conducted after the legislation was passed, only 3,273 women contested among a total of 31,429 candidates, maintaining the overall representation level at just 10.2 per cent.
Among the states and Union Territories, Odisha recorded the highest proportion of women candidates at 13.9 per cent during the 2024 Assembly elections. Delhi followed with 13.7 per cent in 2025, while Puducherry registered 13.6 per cent in 2026.
Despite these figures, no state or Union Territory crossed the 14 per cent mark, indicating that the 33 per cent benchmark remains far from being achieved under the current ticket distribution practices of political parties.
At the other end of the spectrum, Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir recorded the lowest participation of women candidates, with women accounting for only 4.9 per cent of total contestants in both elections.
The ADR report also found that none of the national political parties met the one-third representation benchmark in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indian National Congress (INC), the country’s two largest national parties, fielded women candidates in the range of 13 to 16 per cent.
Several regional parties, however, recorded significantly higher levels of female representation. Naam Tamilar Katchi fielded 50 per cent women candidates, while the Biju Janata Dal allotted 33 per cent of its tickets to women. The Rashtriya Janata Dal fielded 29 per cent women candidates and the All India Trinamool Congress allotted 25 per cent of its tickets to women.
In the Lok Sabha elections, only Naam Tamilar Katchi and the Biju Janata Dal met or exceeded the 33 per cent threshold.
The analysis further showed that among national parties, Congress reached the 33 per cent benchmark only once, during the Sikkim Assembly election.
Several regional parties exceeded the target in specific elections. Naam Tamilar Katchi fielded 50 per cent women candidates in both the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry Assembly elections. CPI(ML)(Liberation) allotted 56 per cent of its tickets to women in West Bengal and 33 per cent in Assam. The Samajwadi Party fielded 40 per cent women candidates in Rajasthan, while Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi and the Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party each allocated 50 per cent of their tickets to women in Puducherry and Delhi respectively.
The findings underline that while the Women’s Reservation Bill has generated momentum around women’s political empowerment, political parties have yet to translate that commitment into substantial representation through candidate selection.
