With Prime Minister Narendra Modi setting a target of 370 seats for his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the party is working out a plan to put special focus on the female voters in major states. On March 8, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, the PM is expected to make some “big announcements” in this regard.
In several key states. the BJP would make attempts to expand its support base among the fairer sex.
In West Bengal, the thundering campaign of the BJP over the Sandeshkhali incidents in North 24 Parganas and PM Modi’s attack on the ruling All India Trinamool Congress
over “atrocities against women of Sandeshkhali” – during his address at the Arambagh public rally in Hooghly district last Friday – showed the party’s commitment to impress the women voters.
On March 7, the PM is expected to address the national meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party Mahila Morcha in Barasat in North 24 Parganas. In this conclave, apart from the female beneficiaries of various central government schemes, several women from Sandeshkhali are also likely to participate, reported The Indian Express, citing sources.
Some BJP leaders conceded that in the last Assembly elections, the party could not shake CM Mamata Banerjee’s third term because of the overwhelming support the TMC got from females. In the 2021 Bengal elections, women overtook men in voting, which saw a turnout of 81.7% female voters as against 81.4% male voters.
BJP insiders say PM Modi in his conversations with the party leaders often reminds them that female voters are going to be the “game changer” in the electoral scene, reported The Indian Express.
They also attributed the BJP’s recent stunning victories in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to the women voters, among other factors.
In Chhattisgarh, in the November 2023 Assembly polls, women voters outnumbered their male counterparts. In the state, of the total 1.56 crore people who voted, around 78.1 lakh were females and 77.5 lakh males.
In almost all the states, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s lists of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls would also see an increase in women’s representation.
At the first meeting of the party’s Central Election Committee (CEC) held earlier this week, PM Narendra Modi was learnt to have repeated that more female candidates should be fielded in the upcoming polls.
On Saturday, the BJP fielded 28 women in its first list of 195 candidates announced.