Women are increasingly being recognised as a decisive constituency capable of shaping electoral outcomes state after state. The story is no different in Tamil Nadu which is slated to go to polls later this year to elect a new assembly.
Ahead of polls, Chief Minister MK Stalin announced the disbursal of Rs 5,000 to women beneficiaries under the Kalaignar Women’s Rights Scheme, describing it as part of his government’s ongoing commitment to women’s welfare.
The CM said the payments, covering February, March, and April, include Rs 3,000 as the standard monthly allocation and an additional Rs 2,000 as a “summer special" bonus. He stated that the funds have already been credited to 1.31 crore women under the scheme.
“This promise given by this Stalin to Tamil Nadu women is the rights allocation. No matter who imposes obstacles, I will not back down from it. Using elections as an excuse, they are trying to stall the rights allocation for three months,” he said.
The Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai Thittam (Kalaignar Women’s Rights Grant or KMUT) is a flagship welfare scheme launched by the Tamil Nadu government.
The scheme provides Rs 1,000 per month as direct financial assistance to eligible women heads of households, with the amount transferred directly to their bank accounts.
Is this Stalin’s first women welfare push?
In December last year, the DMK’s women's conference called Vellum Tamil Pengal (winning Tamil women) was held near Coimbatore. It was the second in a series of such conferences spanning six key districts across the state.
In the same month, the Stalin-led state government expanded its flagship women’s welfare initiative, KMUT, by bringing 17 lakh more women under its ambit in the scheme’s second phase.
As part of the rollout, the money was deposited ahead of the Pongal festival.
The move, however, drew criticism from opposition parties such as the AIADMK and the BJP, which alleged that the timing of the announcement was politically motivated in view of upcoming elections.
Why are women voters important in Tamil Nadu?
Consolidated by Jayalalithaa since the 1990s, women voters are said to have a strong influence in the state’s rural and semi-urban constituencies and were key to the AIADMK victories in the state.
The landscape, however, shifted drastically after Jayalalithaa’s death in 2016 as women voters moved away from the AIADMK, splitting their support between the DMK and Seeman’s Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) in the 2019, 2021, and 2024 elections.
According to the Hindu, the number of women who voted began to overtake men for the first time in Tamil Nadu in the 2016 election. The gap then was 3.7 lakh. It stayed roughly the same during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, too, before increasing to 5.7 lakh in 2021.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, women voters (69.85%) surpassed men voters (69.58%) by a narrow margin. The state has 5.43 crore voters, including 2.66 crore men, 2.77 crore women and 7,191 transgender voters.
Will AIADMK and Vijay’s TVK impact Stalin’s push?
The pre-poll landscape in the state saw a dramatic change as actor-turned-politician Vijay announced the TVK’s foray in the coming electoral battle. Union Finance Minister and BJP leader Nirmala Sitharaman recently said the extent to which the actor's party TVK will hurt other players will be interesting to watch.
"Is he going to take away all the supporters of DMK, particularly the women? And women in Tamil Nadu politics have a very, very powerful voice... Women have a powerful decision-making role. Therefore, I think it's an interesting time to watch Tamil Nadu elections," she said at NDTV Profit Conclave.
Vijay is widely expected to shake up the electoral calculations of both the DMK and the AIADMK, with a sizeable section of young women voters reportedly rallying behind him.
On its part, the AIADMK, which has just revived ties with the BJP ahead of polls, has also unveiled a set of five election promises, including raising social security pensions from Rs 1,200 to Rs 2,000 for senior citizens, elderly widows, unmarried elderly women, women abandoned by their husbands, persons with disabilities, and transgender persons.
An old trope
The concept of pre-payout to women voters ahead of elections is not new. Ahead of the municipal corporations in Maharashtra, the BJP-led Mahayuti government scheduled the credit of instalments under the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana on January 14, just 24 hours before the voting began.
Ahead of the Bihar assembly election, a similar move was made by the Nitish Kumar government.
In Bihar polls, women's turnout (71.78%) topped men's (62.98%), propelling NDA to victory. Earlier, Maharashtra's 2024 assembly polls saw similar patterns, with the Ladki Bahin yojana being credited for Mahayuti's sweep.
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