Use The Power Of 49%

Why women’s votes should matter more than caste and religion vote-banks

- Sagarika Ghose

Ahead of the 2014 general election, a popular brand initiated a ‘Power of 49’ campaign aimed at amplifying the concerns of women voters – women comprising approximately 49% of India’s population. Seven years later as another election cycle takes off, there is growing evidence to suggest that it’s not just caste and religious vote-banks in the mix this time. Every party is courting the woman voter more actively than ever before.

Congress’s Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is campaigning in UP with the slogan, ‘Ladki hoon, lad sakti hoon’ (I am a girl and I can fight), and has promised that as many as 40% party tickets there will be given to women. AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal has promised a Rs 1,000 monthly allowance to women above 18 in Punjab and also promised to increase financial assistance to women in Goa. TMC has gone even further than AAP and announced a Griha Laxmi scheme in Goa, pledging to transfer Rs 5,000 to all women every month. BJP already claims that many of its schemes like Ujjwala have greatly benefitted women.

Of course many of these promises may be typical election sloganeering. Congress has little at stake in the UP polls and so promising 40% seats to women could well be an empty campaign showpiece. Would Congress make a similar announcement in states where it is fighting elections more competitively such as Punjab or Uttarakhand? As for AAP and TMC, are promises to pay women voters akin to bribes in return for votes? Besides, how will such payments be made in Goa, which is a state burdened with an over Rs 18,000 crore debt, a figure which has leapt up by 52% in the last three years?