Why Women Voters Will Make or Break Parties In 2019?

With women choosing to vote in unprecedented numbers, they can now make or break political parties. They are increasingly following their own priorities. Will they cast the decisive vote in 2019?

- Shwweta Punj, Uday Mahurkar and Kaushik Deka

Rima Pramanik, 18, a first year student of Mathematics honours from North 24 Parganas district, will cast her vote for the first time in 2019. She is one of 60 million first-time women voters who will exercise their right in this fiercely contested general election. Pramanik is also a beneficiary of the West Bengal chief minister’s Kanyashree scheme (stipend of Rs 1,000 per year for girl students of Class IX to XII and a Rs 25,000 one-time grant for continuing their higher studies after school). On her voting choices, she is clear that she will vote for the candidate who has enabled her. “Whoever is helping us, has been with us at every bend in our life, will get my vote.” She’s also got a bicycle from the state to go to school and financial support for her father’s operation. She knows she is a clear beneficiary of the schemes rolled out by the Mamata Banerjee government.

Nilima Mondal, 31, is from Bodai village, also in North 24 Parganas. She has used the chullah (a hearth which burns wood) to cook for nearly all her life, and has developed bronchial problems for her pains. All that changed after she became a beneficiary of the Prime Minister’s Ujjwala scheme and got a free LPG connection. The gas connection has improved her health, and while her daughter is a beneficiary of the state’s Kanyashree scheme, she says she will plump for the prime minister who has “brought a smile to my home”.

Like many other women, Rima and Nilima find themselves at the centre of a high-pitched election where the stakes are high for both, those in power and in the opposition. The non-committal woman voter with no loyalties, but an independent mind is the one the parties are targeting most determinedly. And in recent years, women have been coming out to vote in greater numbers than ever before, well-informed and independent in her choices.