No woman became Etmadpur MLA in seven decades

Agra: Since independence, no female candidate has won the assembly election from

Etmadpur

seat of

Agra

district. However, as compared to male candidates the number of female candidates also remained low. The Etmadpur seat came into existence in 1951. It was named Etmadpur – Agra east. Ahead of the 1957 assembly election, Agra east was separated from the Etmadpur seat. Following delimitation conducted by the election commission, the constituency was divided into Etmadpur north and south. In the 1974 assembly election, some parts of the north and south seat were adjusted into other constituencies and election was conducted on the Etmadpur seat. Out of the 15 elections on the seat since independence, during seven elections no female candidate was fielded. In the 2017 election, Samajwadi Party (SP) fielded a woman candidate. Rajabeti had secured 43,925 votes and remained third.This time, Congress had given a ticket to a female party worker

Shivani Singh Baghel

. "I am getting support from all sections of the society. Under the leadership of Priyanka Gandhi, I am confident of becoming the first female MLA from the Etmadpur seat," she said. BJP had won the Etmadpur seat for the first time in the 2017 assembly election. Party candidate

Ram Pratap Singh

had defeated BSP's Dharmpal Singh by over 47,000 votes.Last week, Dharmapal joined BJP and was given a party ticket to contest from the same seat.

Sarvesh Baghel

will be representing BSP from here.Notably, veteran politician Chandra Bhan Maurya has a record of getting elected as a MLA five times from Etmadpur seat. He first won the election in 1977. He lost the election in 1980. In the next four elections - in 1985, 1989, 1991 and 1993 - he emerged victorious.During this time, he changed four political parties, including Janata Party, Lok Dal, Janta Dal and SP.