Integrity Score 160
No Records Found
No Records Found
Thank you for sharing
Welcome
Women voters have played a big part in the BJP's impressive victory in Uttar Pradesh. Voting trends put up by the Election Commission indicate that, in most poll phases - particularly in the final three rounds -women voters were either at par with males or outnumbered the male voters. In the 5th phase of polling, for example, there were 11 percent more women voters as compared to the males, while 3 percent more women voted in the sixth phase. A logical inference that can be drawn from such statistics: That a majority of the women voters stood by and supported the BJP claim of having provided for a better law and order situation - accepting the saffron party's narrative on threats of the "return of the Goonda Raj" Under the Samajwadi Party government. Women voters can also be seen as having been more influenced with the central and state government's direct money transfer to build homes and toilets - as also other welfare schemes such as free rations and the Prime Minister's Ujjwala scheme. Majority of leaders of the Opposition parties - as also UP analysts - had underestimated the BJP gains on account of what is called the "Labharthi Yojna" (Beneficiary Scheme). Estimates are that the BJP provided direct benefits to a large number of voters; helping citizens to tide over the economic downturn of past months, as also the Covid-induced health crisis at the peak of the second wave of Covid-19 last year. It is also a fact that regional party leaders including Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party were seen missing from action when the Covid pandemic was ravaging the state. The Opposition campaign on the Yogi Adityanath government's "Covid mismanagement", therefore, failed to draw traction. The women voters in particular cast their lot with the BJP indicating a new trend in Indian politics: The emergence of women voters as an independent vote bank. Interestingly, while their male members extended their consolidated support to the SP, sections of Muslim women are also said to have voted for the BJP: Pointing to the reach and impact of the BJP's beneficiary scheme.