After Modi's victory, a record number of women should enter the Indian Parliament

MUMBAI – A record number of women will enter the Indian Parliament after the election of a marathon that brought Prime Minister Narendra Modi back to power, according to preliminary results on Friday.

With most counts completed, 78 of the 542 seats in the lower house of Parliament were going to women candidates, a record in the world's largest democracy, but still well below the world average of nearly 39, one in four seats.

India was one of the first countries. to have a leader, but more than five decades after Indira Gandhi became prime minister, women's participation in politics remains stubbornly low.

"There is a myth that female candidates will lose, which is wrong," said Sasmit Patra. Party spokeswoman Biju Janata Dal, who presented seven candidates out of a total of 21 in the Indian state of Odisha, in eastern India.

Pramila Bisoy, 70, was successful. True Indian women created small businesses and said they never imagined entering Parliament.

"Now that I've won, I'll talk to other leaders about the problems in my area," she said Friday.

Half of the 900 million Indian voters are women, and the ruling Bharatiya Janata ruling party and the opposition party in Congress have been urging voters in their election campaigns.

Both countries promised safer lives and new opportunities for women, who are still earning less. learn less, live poorer, marry younger and risk badual violence from rape violence.

The turnout rate for women has always been low, but this year, for the first time, the number of women elected was about the same as that of men (about 67%).

The proportion of women in the lower house is expected to increase by 14%, 2 percentage points more than before the election, but still far behind neighboring countries, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The ruling party defeated women, they won, "said Tara Krishnaswamy of Shakti, an organization that advocates for more women in parliament.

" This proves that equality gender is not an obstacle to women's representation in parliament, "she said.

Smriti Irani, BJP candidate who defeated Congressman Rahul Gandhi in Amethi – One of the bastions of the Gandhi family for decades – was one of the greatest upheavals of the election.

as a "symbolic" victory that showed that voters did not consider the candidates as less important.