Since 1957 only 2 women MPs have won Jamshedpur seat

JAMSHEDPUR: Of the 16 lakh voters in the Jamshedpur Lok Sabha constituency, 8.14 lakh are women. At a time when political parties are claiming to field 33% to 41% women candidates, only two women have represented the prestigious

Jamshedpur Lok Sabha constituency

since 1957.



Jamshedpur seat, which comprises of two urban assembly segments (Jamshedpur west and east), two semi-urban (Jugsalai and Ghatshila) and two rural (Bahragora and Potka), first elected its woman MP as Abha Mahato in 1998 on a BJP ticket.

Abha had joined the saffron brigade along with her husband

Shailendra Mahato

from JMM. It may be recalled that Shailendra was an accused in the JMM MPs bribery case, which hit the then Congress govt led by

Narasimha Rao

. Later, Shailendra turned approver and the couple jumped fence to joined the BJP.

In 1998, Abha Mahato with the backing of Vajapyee wave and getting the Kurmi mathematics correct defeated a very popular candidate former CMD of Tata Steel, Russy Mody.

She won the seat again in 1999 Lok Sabha elections, after Vajpayee government was voted out of power in April 17, 1999 by one vote during the most famous no-confidence motion in Parliament and fresh mandate was sought.

Abha won the 1999 polls by defeating Ghansyam Mahato and entered the Lok Sabha again with Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the PM.

Incidentally, till date Jamshedpur voters have never elected the same candidate thrice in a row, so Abha Mahato lost the seat to JMM's Sunil Mahto in the 2004 General Elections. Poll pundits say BJP could not read the pulse of the voters and fielded Abha Mahato thrice in a row.

With Vajpayee's India Shinning campaign not going down well with the voters, Abha Mahato was road-rolled by young Sunil Mahato contesting under the JMM flag. The rural and semi-urban voters of the constituency turned the tide against the saffron camp.

The seat was next won by another woman candidate JMM's Suman Mahato, widow of Sunil Mahato in 2007 bypolls. Notably the seat fell vacant after Maoists gunned down then MP Sunil Mahato near Ghatshila during an on going football match on March 4, 2007.

Suman Mahato, basking in the sympathy wave in connection with the killing of her husband, won the 2007 polls by defeating BJP's Dinesh Sarangi by 58,814 votes. Sources said Suman polled in 2,93,003 votes and BJP's Dinesh Sarangi got 2,34,189 votes. In that bypolls JVM(P) candidate, industrialist-turned politician Bikash Mukherjee finished third with 37,443 votes.

It may be mentioned here that in 2009 Lok Sabha polls JMM repeated their candidate Suman Mahato but she was trounced by BJP candidate Arjun Munda. Munda defeated his nearest rival Suman Mahato of JMM by 1,19,73 votes.

Proving many wrong Arjun Munda bagged 3,19,630 votes while outgoing MP, Suman Mahato secured 1,99,957 votes JVM (D) candidate and strongman Arvind Singh alias Malkhan Singh came distant third with 79,089 votes and Shailendra Mahato, the AJSU candidate stood fourth with 37,400 votes.