BJP to field more women in politics to sustain electoral gains: report

New Delhi: BJP leadership says that winning hearts and minds of women is central to the party’s strategy in overcoming electoral stagnation, according to a report.

The response gathers importance as women’s turnout at national polls marks a surge from 53% in 2004 to 67% in 2019, as per data by Election Commission of India, according to Reuters.

Vanathi Srinivasan, the party MLA chosen by PM Modi to take care of party’s equal representation charge, said that more women’s representation will be a ‘game changer’ in both ‘electorally and socially’. Perhaps the BJP’s sustained win in polls depends women voting for the party.

Vanathi Srinivasan revealed that the BJP plans to nominate women in a third of 543 seats in the lower house of Parliament in the 2024 polls.

Alongside, 900 women will be recruited to assume positions as internal staff of the party, in order to achieve ‘one third female representation’ at managerial levels, she added.

The policy change is aimed at overcoming its ‘lopsided record’ of having just 42 women among its 303 lawmakers in parliament.

Christophe Jaffrelot, a professor of Indian politics and sociology at King's India Institute in London, as reported by Reuters, said that women’s participation in India’s politics has not yet kept pace with the nation’s economic growth.

‘The BJP will have to prove that they really believe in giving women political opportunity, the numbers will do the talking,’ Jaffrelot was quoted by Reuters as saying.

However, critics of the saffron party ask why the party has not yet passed a bill before 2024 polls to ensure a third of seats in parliament for women, if it were fully committed to gender equality.

The BJP’s decision to introduce more women into ranks of the party and in lower house follows a private polling by the party.

The poll findings linked rising female voter turnout to increased political awareness among women across rural and urban areas, according to the report.