TL;DR: Women’s participation in states where assembly elections were held in 2026 increased only marginally between 2021 and 2026 and remained far below the proposed 33% reservation benchmark. Representation also varied significantly across states, political parties, and constituency categories.

Context

The passage of the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023, popularly known as the Women’s Reservation Bill or Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, marked a major step toward improving women’s political representation in India. The legislation provides for a 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies, including seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Although the reservation will come into effect only after delimitation and related procedures, the bill has intensified discussions around the participation of women in electoral politics.

In this context, analysing data of the recently held state assembly elections in 2026 offers insight into whether political parties have voluntarily expanded opportunities for women candidates even before the reservation is implemented. This article compares assembly elections held in 2021 and 2026 in Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, and Puducherry, focusing on the share of women contestants and the number of women elected as MLAs to understand emerging trends in gender representation across states.

Who compiles this data?
The data is primarily compiled and published by the Election Commission of India through its detailed statistical reports on the election results.

Where can I download clean & structured data related to this?

Clean, standardised, structured, and ready-to-use datasets related to Lok Sabha elections and state assembly elections are available on Dataful. Historical election data dating back to the 1950s is available across all states. In addition, the platform provides comprehensive datasets on voters, candidates, political parties, and constituencies.

Key Insights

• There has been a marginal increase in the share of women contestants across the states between 2021 and 2026. However, despite this improvement, women’s representation remained below 14% in all states, indicating that political participation continues to be far below the proposed 33% reservation benchmark.

• Among the states, Puducherry recorded the highest share of women candidates in 2026 at 13.6%, followed closely by West Bengal at 13.3%. Tamil Nadu and Kerala also crossed the 10% mark, while Assam recorded a comparatively lower level of women contestants.

• While reserved constituencies generally field more women candidates than general ones, the trends are deeply uneven. Between 2021 and 2026, the share of women contesting Scheduled Caste seats in West Bengal surged from 10.8% to 18.2%. Conversely, Kerala’s two Scheduled Tribe seats saw a decline with female candidate shares falling from 45.5% to 18.2%.

• Kerala and Tamil Nadu were the only states to record third gender candidates in both 2021 and 2026. Kerala recorded one third gender candidate in each election year, while Tamil Nadu recorded two candidates in 2021 and one in 2026.

• The Indian National Congress (INC) significantly increased its female candidate pool in West Bengal (rising from 7.6% to 13.7%) and Assam (9.5% to 13.1%). Conversely, the BJP witnessed a contraction in its share of women contestants in both states.

• In West Bengal, the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) consistently fielded a relatively high share of women candidates, increasing from 16.6% in 2021 to 18.3% in 2026.

• While CPI(M) in Tamil Nadu technically posted the highest share of women contestants at 40.0% in 2026, this spike simply reflects a small sample size, where just 2 out of 5 total candidates were female as compared to 1 out of 6 in the 2021 elections. There were no female candidates from the party in Assam’s elections in either of the two seats it contested.

• Kerala showed relatively stable trends across parties, with CPI(M) and BJP maintaining women’s candidate shares above 14% in 2026, while INC recorded a slight decline over the period.

• West Bengal recorded the highest share of women MLAs among these states in both elections, although the share declined slightly from 13.6% in 2021 to 12.6% in 2026. Tamil Nadu witnessed the sharpest improvement in women’s electoral success, with the share of women MLAs nearly doubling from 5.1% in 2021 to 9.8% in 2026. In contrast, Puducherry had only one woman MLA in 2021 and none in 2026.

Why does it matter?

The analysis shows that women’s political representation in India remains uneven despite the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill. Differences across states, parties, and reserved constituencies suggest that candidate selection continues to depend heavily on party strategies and regional political dynamics rather than a uniform push toward gender parity. The findings also indicate that reserved constituencies often provide relatively greater space for women candidates, while representation in general seats continues to lag.

Key Numbers

• Below 14% — Share of women contestants across all states that went to the polls in 2026.

• 13.6% — Puducherry recorded the highest share of women candidates in 2026

• 16.6% → 18.3% — AITC’s share of women contestants in West Bengal (2021–2026)

• 10.8% → 18.2% — Women’s share in SC seats in West Bengal (2021–2026)

• 5.1% → 9.8% — Share of women MLAs in Tamil Nadu (2021–2026)