Hyderabad: India’s youngest state Telangana has seen a dip in the number of women candidates during the recent elections.

The representation of women in the Telangana Assembly has fallen to 5% from 7.5%, where only six women, three each from the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Congress, have made it to the Assembly in the elections which were held on December 7. In 2014, nine women were elected.

The major parties in Telangana did not give more than 51 tickets to women in this month’s elections. And, the winning TRS gave tickets to just four women this time in which three candidates won. Former deputy speaker Padma Devender Reddy, Ajmera Rekha and G Sunitha Reddy retained their seats.

Speaking exclusively to MyNation, state chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s (KCR) daughter, and MP K Kavitha, who is also the first woman parliamentarian from Telangana , said, "This issue is not only with the TRS but with every party in this nation. The party which wanted 33% reservation has never given 33% seats to women or the party which came to power in 2014. So, unless and until that is done, representation of women will always be a question mark."

The Congress party had also fielded 11 women candidates, in which three candidates won. Anasuya Dansari defeated minister Azmeera Chandulal from Mulug constituency, Banoth Haripriya was elected from Yellandu, and former home minister in undivided Andhra Pradesh Sabitha Indra Reddy was elected from Maheshwaram.

Telangana BJP leader Premendra said, "TRS's only motive is to capture the power. They are not giving equal rights to women and other SC and ST category. He (KCR) is only taking his family members into the party. In the previous Assembly elections, not many women participated. And in this year’s elections too, they did not give tickets to women. He is the monopoly of the party, and there is no democracy in the party."

The eight other women fielded by the TRS, including former ministers J Geetha Reddy from Zahirabad, DK Aruna from Gadwal, Sunitha Laxma Reddy from Narsapur and Konda Surekha from Parkal were defeated.

According to the Election Commission, female voters outnumbered their male counterparts in many constituencies including Sircilla, Siddipet and Huzurnagar. In Sircilla, KCR’s son KT Rama Rao won.