Assam’s women MLAs

The sixteenth Assam Legislative Assembly constituted following the 2026 assembly elections has only seven women legislators in a house of 126 members. Altogether 60 women candidates had contested in the 2026 election. This figure, which constitutes roughly 5.5 per cent of the House, raises concerns about the representation and participation of women in the state’s highest decision-making and law-making forum. Looking at the party-wise break-up of these seven women MLAs, one finds that while five represent the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and one from its ally Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), there is only one woman MLA in the opposition, who belongs to the Congress party. Of the seven woman MLAs in the new Assembly, five are first-time elected, four from the BJP and one from the Congress. Looking at their backgrounds, one can see that while one – veteran politician Ajanta Neog – was drawn into politics after her husband, a former minister, was killed in a militant attack way back in 1996, two other woman MLAs – Diptimayee Choudhury and Sewli Mohilary – are the wives of two veteran politicians. Ethnically speaking, three of them – Sewli Mohilary, Rupali Langthasa and Niso Terangpi – come from tribal communities, and one – Baby Begum – comes from a religious minority community. That three out of seven woman MLAs are from tribal communities is in itself a very significant thing. Looking back, one finds that the twelfth Assam Legislative Assembly (2011-16) had the highest number of fourteen women members, which worked out to about 11.1 per cent of the total strength of the House. Archival documents reveal that the first Assam Legislative Assembly, elected in 1952 after the Constitution of India came into effect, had only one woman member. In fact, women’s representation in the Assam Legislative Assembly has historically remained low. The previous House, elected in 2021, had just six women members. But, despite being only seven, the women MLAs can significantly improve the status of women and children by directly advocating for gender-just budgetary allocations, pushing for strict implementation of maternal and child welfare schemes, and championing legislation to prevent child marriage, domestic abuse, and other forms of rights violation.