Ten of the 185 women who ran for office in the State Assembly elections this year—including several who were running for the first time—have won. There were ten female lawmakers in the last Assembly.
Anjali Nimbalkar and K. Poornima are two incumbent MLAs that lost, unlike Laxmi. R. Hebbalkar, Roopakala M., and Shashikala Jolle are among the women who were re-elected. The Congress candidate from Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Kusuma H., contested Munirathna, but Munirathna ultimately prevailed.
Anjali Nimbalkar
Image Source: Oneindia
In the Belagavi Rural constituency, Ms Hebbalkar of the Congress defeated Nagesh Annappa Manolkar of the BJP by a landslide majority of 56,016 votes. She succeeded in winning two consecutive elections in 2018 and 2023 after losing in the same constituency in 2013. This would be the second term in the seat for Ms Roopakala, the Congress candidate from KGF, and for Kaneez Fatima, also from the same party and the wife of the former minister Qamar-ul-Islam, who ran in Gulbarga North.
Image Source: Kaneez Fatima @Twitter
Ms Jolle, who served as the BJP Cabinet’s Minister of Muzarai, Haj, and Wakf, won the election in Nippani by a slim margin of 7,401 votes. The daughter of former Congress Minister Motamma, newcomer Nayana Motamma, also won the Mudigere constituency by a razor-thin margin of 722 votes.
Latha Mallikarjun, a popular JD(S) leader’s daughter who ran as an Independent in Harapanahalli, was among the other first-time winners. She defeated BJP candidate G. Karunakara Reddy by a margin of 13,845 votes. Manjula S., the wife of the sitting MLA Aravind Limbavali, ran from the important Mahadevapura constituency and won with a 44,501-vote advantage.
Latha Mallikarjun
Image Source: Oneindia Kannada
Anjali Nimbalkar, a prominent member of the Congress Party, was re-elected to the Khanapur Assembly constituency in 2018, although she fell short by 54,629 votes to BJP candidate Vithal Somanna Halagekar.
