Out of the 185 women candidates who contested in this year’s State Assembly elections, 10 have emerged victorious including some women who were in the fray for the first time. The outgoing Assembly also had 10 women legislators.
Laxmi. R. Hebbalkar, Roopakala M., and Shashikala Jolle are amongst the women who have been re-elected while Anjali Nimbalkar and K. Poornima are among the incumbent MLAs who lost. Kusuma H., the Congress candidate from Rajarajeshwari Nagar, put up a fight against Munirathna, who eventually won.
In Belagavi Rural constituency, Ms. Hebbalkar of the Congress won with a huge margin of 56,016 votes against Nagesh Annappa Manolkar of BJP. After losing the elections in 2013 from the same constituency, she has managed to score two consecutive wins in 2018 and 2023. For Ms. Roopakala, the Congress candidate from KGF and Kaneez Fatima from the same party (wife of ex-minister Qamar–ul– Islam) who contested in Gulbarga North, too, this would be a second term in the constituency.
At Nippani, Ms. Jolle, who was the Minister of Muzarai, Haj and Wakf in the BJP Cabinet managed to secure a narrow victory with a margin of just 7,401 votes. New face Nayana Motamma, former Congress Minister Motamma’s daughter, also scored a narrow victory with a margin of just 722 votes in Mudigere constituency.
Among other first-time winners, Latha Mallikarjun (daughter of popular JD(S) leader the late M.P. Prakash), who stood as an Independent candidate in Harapanahalli, grabbed a 13,845 vote margin against G. Karunakara Reddy of BJP. Contesting from the key constituency of Mahadevapura, Manjula S., wife of incumbent MLA Aravind Limbavali, managed a comfortable win in the constituency with a 44,501 vote lead.
Senior Congress leader Anjali Nimbalkar was elected to Khanapur Assembly constituency in 2018, but this time she lost to Vithal Somanna Halagekar of the BJP by 54,629 votes.
