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On October 5, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah addressed a ‘Matrushakti Sammelan’ in Durg. During the rally, Shah called for the “power of the women” voters to not just defeat Congress but also decimate the party the state.
Although Congress hasn’t addressed a mega rally akin to the BJP in Chhattisgarh yet, its campaigning has highlighted the BJP government’s poor record with women. The party has cited incidents that range from the government’s ignorance of women in policy issues to increase in crime against women in the state.
In Chhattisgarh, as in any other state, women voters play a significant role in deciding the fate of the government. During the 2013 assembly elections, over 77.32 percent women had voted, 0.3 percent more than the male voting percentage.
In these elections, as many as 22 seats out of the 90 going to polls will see women voters play an instrumental role. That is because these 22 seats have more women than men.
The 22 seats include Pathalgaon, Dharmajaigarh, Khallari, Marwahi, Kawardha, Mahasmund, Bindrawangarh, Sihawa, Khujji, Mohla-Manpur, Kanker, Bhanupratapur, Keshkal, Narayanpur, Chitrakot, Dantewada, Jagdalpur, Bastar, Konta, Bijapur, Kondagaon and Dondilohara.
Interestingly, only two out of these seats had elected a female representative during the 2013 assembly elections, and both from Congress. Devati Karma, the wife of slain Congress leader Mahendra Karma, won by over 6,000 votes in Dantewada while Anila Bhediya won from the Dondilohara constituency, beating the BJP candidate by over 19,000 votes.
Of the 77 candidates declared by the BJP for the elections this time around, over two dozen are female while out of these 22 seats, the saffron party has fielded female candidates in only four, including Sihawa and Kondagaon.
During the 2013 elections, Congress— which has declared its list only for the first phase of the elections — won 13 out of these 22 seats, while BJP had managed to win eight, one seat being won by an Independent candidate.
The highest number of women voters in the state are in the Pathalgaon constituency in Jashpur district. Pathalgaon, an ST seat from where BJP’s Shivshankar Paikra had won during the last elections, has 98,665 women voters as opposed to 98,245 male voters. None of the seven parties contesting for the seat during the 2013 elections had fielded a women candidate from the constituency.
Next in line is Dharamjaigarh, another ST seat, which has over 90,000 female voters. The BJP has fielded Leenav Rathia from this constituency. The saffron party’s candidate last year, Om Prakash Rathia, had lost to Congress’ Laljeet Singh Rathia from Dharamjaigarh.
Of these 22 seats, Bastar has the lowest number of women voters at 68,596. Lakeshwar Baghel from Congress had won the seat during the last assembly elections.
BJP and Congress combined had fielded 24 women candidates during the 2013 elections. Of these, six of the 11 women candidates fielded by the BJP had won while four of the 13 fielded by Congress had managed to get elected.
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