Bengal BJP registers 1.5L women in five days of membership drive
Times of India | 2 November 2024
123 Kolkata: Bengal BJP's membership campaign, which entered its fifth day on Friday, has so far registered nearly 1.5 lakh women. The party, eyeing a target of 1 crore members, has put special focus on the rising number of women voters in the state.
With 968 female voters per 1,000 male voters in Bengal, political parties are now chasing women voters. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the turnout of women voters even outpaced the turnout of male voters in several booths in the state.
In nearly 18 constituencies out of 42, women voter turnout was higher in 2019. In 2024, Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar's home turf Balurghat also witnessed a larger turnout of women voters.
Parties, including Trinamool, spotted the trend early and launched a number of social welfare schemes, especially for women.
Of the 56,000 candidates fielded by BJP in the last panchayat polls, its nominees won in more than 10,000 seats, including 9,756 gram panchayat seats. "Almost half of the candidates who won were women. They have a strong support base of party workers. They will, in turn, influence women in the area and nearby areas where people witnessed how the polls were manipulated," said BJP's Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya.
"There is mixed response from different districts. However, so far, nearly half of the members are women," he added.
Apart from this, BJP is reaching out to 10 more groups of voters. "Corruption in the distribution of Awas Yojana homes is going to be the biggest issue in the days to come," Bhattacharya said.