PM Modi’s matinee idol appeal waning among women

PM Narendra Modi had cast his vote during phase 2 of Gujarat elections. (Image: Twitter/File)

Women voters, always among the most ardent supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, were slightly lukewarm in their support of the ruling party in the recently concluded assembly elections in Gujarat compared to the last polls in 2017.

Sanjay Kumar, Professor at the New Delhi-based Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), told Moneycontrol that their study of the elections indicated a slackening of interest in the BJP among women voters.

``The Lokniti-CSDS post-poll survey found that 51 percent of women respondents supported the BJP compared to 54 percent of the men,” he said.

In comparison, three percent more women supported the Congress-NCP alliance compared to men.

Broadly, the state Election Commission (EC) data confirmed what Kumar said. The turnout among women fell by five percentage points. The gap between men and women stood at 4.4 percentage points in 2017.

According to the state Election Commission, of the total 4.91 crore eligible voters, 2.53 crore are male, and 2.37 crore are women.

Overall voter turnout for all 182 assembly constituencies was 64.33 percent, 4.09 percentage points lower than the 2017 figure of 68.42 percent, the state Election Commission said.

All parties actively wooed women in these elections, highlighting their promises to them prominently in their manifestoes. The BJP’s outreach to women was spearheaded by its state Mahila Morcha, which organised 'samvad sankalps' (dialogues) and 'satyanarayan kathas' (religious programmes) across the state.

Yet, despite the surprisingly diminishing returns of women among women, overall, the Prime Minister’s connection with them remains. "There is no doubt that PM Modi has a strong connection with women. He has raised issues relating to women. They are his strong supporters,” Badri Narayan, Professor, Gobind Ballabh Pant Social Sciences Institute, Allahabad, told Moneycontrol.

During the course of the Gujarat poll campaign, the Prime Minister repeatedly talked about women’s empowerment, announcing several schemes during his frequent visits, his speeches peppered with appeals to `mothers, sisters and daughters.’

In the course of one such trip, he unfurled a traditional flag at the Mahakali temple in Panchmahal, a symbol of women’s empowerment.

Since 1962, when the central Election Commission began breaking down voter turnout by gender in the general elections, more women have backed the Congress compared to other parties at the national level. In 2019, for the first time ever, the BJP became the party with the highest number of female voters, with Gujarat leading the pack.

It also marked the first election campaign where the Prime Minister, seeking a second term, extensively courted women.

Madhu Kishwar, a long-time women’s rights activist, believes that security for women is a big issue in Gujarat. "On Garba (a traditional festival), women go out alone at night or with their families without the fear of being molested,” she told Moneycontrol.

She argues that much as people snigger about prohibition in Gujarat, "the fact is that you cannot appear on the streets drunk creating a nuisance. It would be outright illegal. That keeps people safer and women feel the most secure.” The scene in NCR, for instance, she says is diametrically opposite.