The Might of the Woman Voter
Women voters have always played a very crucial role in Bengal politics. They were an important factor behind Mamata Banerjee ousting the Left government in 2011 and have been by her side in the 2016 elections too.
However, that wasn’t the case in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections where a large chunk of women voters had sided with the BJP, and the results spoke for themselves. The BJP would be looking to capitalise on this swing.
The BJP through the union budget is trying to hit more than one target (state) with a single arrow. In Bengal, women voter’s turnout has been higher than men’s turnout for two consecutive years.
According to the Election Commission’s final voters list for Bengal, women voters now stand at 49 per cent of the total electorate. For the BJP, it would be easier to try to woo Mamata’s female vote bank than her minority vote bank, and hence they set aside Rs 24,435 crore the Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry, a 16.31 per cent…