Votings for Lok Sabha Elections 2024 will take place in Punjab on June 1 in the seventh phase. As a result, major political parties have almost finalised their list of candidates who will fight the General Elections 2024. Punjab is witnessing multiple leaders switching their parties and getting a ticket to contest Lok Sabha Elections. However, what is indeed attention-grabbing is the women candidates of Punjab who will fight Lok Sabha Elections 2024. Despite political parties' consensus that their 1/3rd candidates should be women, the ground reality is totally different. As per reports, there are more than 1 crore female voters who will vote in the Lok Sabha Elections 2024, however, till now, major parties have announced only 6 woman candidates. It is not the first time Punjab has witnessed such low representation of women in Lok Sabha Elections. In the 2019 LS Polls, only 5 women were fielded out of only 2 won. In 2014, only 4 women were fielded out of whom only 1 candidate won. Below is a list of women candidates of Punjab for Lok Sabha Elections 2024-
1) Harsimrat Kaur Badal
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on April 22 released its second list of candidates and announced Harsimrat Kaur Badal as its candidate from Bathinda for Lok Sabha 2024 Polls. Harsimrat Badal is the former Union Cabinet Minister of Food Processing Industries in the Government of India. Harsimrat resigned from the post after SAD broke its ties with the NDA alliance led by the BJP. SAD had broken its ties with NDA after the saffron party passed three farm laws (now repealed). She is the current MP of Bathinda.
Harsimrat's political career started in the 2009 General election. She was elected to the 15th Lok Sabha from the Bathinda constituency after defeating Congress candidate Raninder Singh. Badal has been re-elected as an MP from Bathinda in 2014 having defeated Congress-People's Party of Punjab joint candidate, Manpreet Singh Badal. For this, she was appointed by the Modi government as State Minister for Food Processing.
2) Preneet Kaur
BJP in March 2024 announced Preneet Kaur as its Lok Sabha Election candidate from Patiala constituency. Preneet Kaur is the wife of former Punjab CM Capt. Amarinder Singh. Preneet Kaur is the only candidate who has won the election from the Patiala constituency thrice i.e. in year 2004, 2009, and 2019. This is after 21 years that BJP will be fighting assembly election without any alliance. For the unversed, it was in 1997 that BJP formed an alliance with SAD and till 2019 they contested elections together. Post 2019, this is the first time that BJP and SAD will be contesting solo in the assembly election.
3) Parampal Kaur
BJP in April 2024 announced former IAS officer Parampal Kaur as its candidate for Lok Sabha Elections 2024 from Bathinda. Parampal Kaur, the former bureaucrat is the daughter-in-law of senior Shiromani Akali Dal leader Sikander Singh Maluka. Parampal Kaur, a 2011 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, applied for voluntary retirement ahead of her retirement on 31 October as she wasn’t getting a sense of satisfaction from her job any longer. Parampal Kaur was posted as the Managing Director of the Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation.
Parampal joined government service as a block development and panchayat officer (BDPO) and was posted as an additional project director attached to the office of director general, school education when her father-in-law was the Education Minister in the Parkash Singh Badal regime. She was elevated to the IAS in 2015.
4) Anita Som Prakash
BJP in April 2024 announced Anita Som Prakash as its candidate for the Hoshairpur seat for the Lok Sabha Elections 2024. Anita Som Prakash is the wife of the Minister of State for Commerce and Industry of India, Som Prakash. BJP has given a ticket to Som Prakash's wife this year. Som Prakash holds significant influence in the constituency and is likely to carry out massive rallies in support of Anita Som Parkash. BJP still has a good chance of victory this year as sources say that as per BJP’s internal survey, Som Parkash is favoured in the constituency thanks to his work. The Hoshiarpur constituency has been traditionally BJP’s stronghold, which has held major influence in four of its legislative assembly constituencies, which include Dasuya, Mukerian, Phagwara, and Hoshiarpur.
5) Yamini Gomar
Congress has fielded Yamini Gomar as its Lok Sabha candidate from Hoshairpur. Yamini Gomar was previously in AAP. In the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections, Yamini Gomar had secured 2.13 lakh votes, standing third and losing to Bharatiya Janata Party’s Vijay Sampla. After being absent from politics for many years, she joined Congress. Yamini Gomar is reportedly an ILETS Coaching Center owner.
6) Amarjit Kaur Sahoke
A few days back, the Congress named former Moga Zila Parishad chairperson Amarjit Kaur Sahoke from the Faridkot (SC) Lok Sabha seat. Amarjit replaced sitting MP Mohammad Sadiq.
Number of women voters constituency-wise
- Gurdaspur- 750965
- Amritsar- 756820
- Khadoor Sahib- 785067
- Jalandhar- 787781
- Hoshairpur- 766296
- Anandpur Sahib- 817627
- Ludhiana- 806484
- Fatehgarh Sahib- 722353
- Faridkot- 744363
- Bathinda- 774860
- Sangrur- 729092
- Patiala- 852433