Women voters emerging as the new vote bank with power to swing elections

The term " Vote Banks " is a dreaded word in Indian democracy which usually denotes people voting in a block to a particular party en masse due to appeasement politics mainly based on minority religions or caste.

The recently concluded Bengal elections and even the 2019 general elections have had a positive impact vis a vis with the definition of this term with the emergence of the women vote bank- a silent unknown women empowerment that is happening in Indian democracy.

Women are constantly voting to parties that have implemented women empowerment-centric schemes ignoring ideological considerations of caste and religion.

It has emerged from post-poll data analysis that women rallied behind Didi even if their male family members voted for a different party. Out of the total votes polled women have contributed the most for TMC's tally and have a 4% lead over men.

46% of men voted for TMC while 50% of the women electorate voted for TMC. The reverse has happened for BJP with them receiving 46% of men's vote and 40% of women's vote.

This trend holds true cutting across caste, religion, and economic lines with a different trend seen for Adivasi, OBC, UC, Dalit electorate if viewed through a gender perspective.

More upper-caste, Adivasi, and dalit women have voted for TMC than men with the difference in percentage being significant over men- 7%, 13% & 5% respectively. The men of the same demographic sect have voted for BJP more indicating a clear emergence of women as a vote bank.

The trends don't hold true only for the OBCs and minorities ( Muslims ) who have voted to BJP and TMC respectively without any gender difference.

The reason may be due to the various women-centric schemes like Kanyashree, Rupashree, and bicycle being given to young girl students along with the greater representation of women in her government and party. Also just before elections, TMC announced to give a monthly sum(500-1000) to the women head of families.

This seems to have worked as poorer, lower middle class and middle-class women have voted for TMC than men. Only the rich women have voted for BJP.

A similar trend was seen in the 2019 elections when more women ( 46%) had voted for BJP than men (44% ) due to various women-centric schemes like Ujwala Yojana, Awas Yojana, etc. Women who for long were underrepresented in the Indian electorate are coming out and voting in large numbers nearly equal to men. According to trends, they will soon overtake men hence emerging as an important vote bank. The number of women who turned up to vote outnumbered male voters in 97 constituencies during the last general elections.