Haryana’s outgoing 90-member Assembly has only nine women legislators.
But the upcoming Assembly polls in the state could buck the trend of poor women’s representation, with several well-known candidates like Olympian Vinesh Phogat and former Lok Sabha member Shruti Choudhry, the granddaughter of former CM Bansi Lal, joining the fray.
On Thursday, the last day for filing the nominations, Savitri Jindal, the richest woman in the country, threw her hat in the poll ring as an Independent candidate from Hisar.
Savitri, 74, is the mother of industrialist Naveen Jindal, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Kurukshetra MP, and the widow of industrialist O P Jindal.
The ruling BJP denied her a ticket and fielded minister Kamal Gupta from Hisar.
Forbes India listed Savitri as the richest woman in the country this year, with a net worth of $29.1 billion.
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She is the chairperson of the steel and power conglomerate, O P Jindal Group.
Savitri represented Hisar as a Congress MLA twice.
In 2005, she had won a bypoll after her husband, the sitting legislator from the seat, died in a helicopter crash. She won in 2009 and served as a minister in the Bhupinder Hooda government. O P Jindal had won the seat consecutively from 1991 to 2005.
Others to file their nominations on Thursday include Congress Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Surjewala's son Aditya Surjewala from Kaithal and BJP's Shruti Choudhry from Tosham.