Srinagar: Only three women, including PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, out of 67 hopefuls could make it to the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly as results of all 87 seats poured in.
Sakina Itoo and Shamima Firdous, both National Conference, were the other two women who romped home from Noorabad and Habba Kadal constituencies respectively.
Mehbooba Mufti, an MP, humbled National Conference's Hussain Gania by a margin of 8,000 votes from Wacchi seat in South Kashmir.
The PDP stalwart had romped from Phalagam in the 2002 assembly poll. Later, she contested the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat and emerged triumphant.
Itoo, a minister in the Farooq Abdullah government in 1996, defeated PDP's Abdul Aziz Zargar, also an ex-minister, by 4355 votes.
Firdous, the third woman to enter the House, edged past BJP'S H L Chatta by a margin of 1710 votes former Habba Kadal, a bastion of displaced Kashmiri Pandits.
Sixty-four women, including Shabnum Gani Lone, daughter of slain Hurriyat leader Abdul Gani Lone, who also tried their luck at the hustings, fell by the wayside.
Lone, who contested as an Independent from Kupwara seat, failed to cash on the popularity of her father and lost to NC leader Saifullah Mir.
In the 2002 election, Mehbooba and Suman Bhagat of the Congress had entered the assembly from Pahalgam and R S Pura constituencies respectively. Four women, all of the Congress, had emerged triumphant in the 1972 assembly election.
They were Zainab Begum, Hajra Begum, Nirmala Devi and Shanta Bharti.
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