BJP banks on women power to ace 2019 Lok Sabha elections

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants to leave no stone unturned in its bid to retain power at the Centre in the next Lok Sabha elections scheduled in 2019. To ensure a firm grip on a large chunk of voters, the party is planning to connect with women across the country. As per the plan, whenever PM Modi visits any state, he will make sure that he interacts with women in the area to gauge their mood.

The plan will be executed beginning with PM Modi’s visit to his parliamentary constituency Varanasi on March 12. He will visit the city with French President Emmanuel Macron, who is on a four-day visit to India from March 9 to 12.

During his visit, he will meet women from different areas of his constituency to take feedback for the work done for them after he came to power. Thousands of women - including weavers, students and those running small businesses - will assemble at Direka Ground in Varanasi to meet him. Ecstatic at the opportunity, several women plan to put forth the problems they face in front of the PM.

Appreciating the work done by the Centre, the women who will meet PM Modi have said that they will convey it to him that they will be able to perform better if they get more employment opportunities and a safer environment. After this interaction with the women in Varanasi, the BJP will restrategise on what it needs to do ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

Experts view this as a measure to win the support of women across the country. Political analyst Ravi Prakash claimed that in the Indian society, it is a belief that only men have a role in making the decision on who to vote for and the women accept their decision. "In such a scenario, this step by the PM will have a bearing on the votes that these women cast. Muslim women voting for the BJP in the last elections is a proof of the power in their hands," he quips.

Meanwhile, opposition parties are calling these meetings a political stunt. The Congress has claimed that the PM never cares about the women except during elections and they are treated merely as a vote bank politics.

At a time when Congress has been talking of demonetisation, implementation of Goods and Service Tax (GST) and growing unemployment in the country as a report card of the Centre, this step by the BJP may once again turn the political discussion on its head.