BJP eyes women votes in Bengal, seeks to dent TMC’s support base

With the Trinamool Congress (TMC)-led state government in Bengal having introduced several schemes for women empowerment, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) too is gearing up to eat into the pie of the ruling party’s women votes in this Lok Sabha elections.

The saffron brigade is learnt to have directed formation of women brigades in every Assembly seat.

Such instructions have been sent to all its district organisations. It was directed that the women brigade will hold area-wise meetings and raise issues of women safety under the incumbent state government. On top of their agenda will be the Sandeshkhali issue where several women are learnt to have alleged atrocities against them and have submitted their complaints through affidavits in the court.

Further, the BJP will also reach out to women voters who have benefitted from schemes of the Narendra Modi-led Central government. The party believes a considerable number of women votes in Bengal which have so far gone to the TMC will swing towards the saffron brigade in this Parliamentary elections. The party will also reach out to voters in constituencies which had women MPs from Trinamool and ask them whether at all they found their MPs by their side in times of need. TMC has already refused tickets to its sitting MP of Basirhat Nusrat Jahan after the Sandeshkhali issue while its Jadavpur MP actor Mimi Chakraborty resigned recently. The BJP seeks to take advantage of such developments.

However, the TMC is confident that its schemes, especially the Lakshmir Bhandar, where the amount of allowance for women was raised from April 1 onwards in 202425 Budget, will reap benefits for the party in the voting machines. The party has also been calling the BJP “antiwomen” in its campaign, citing alleged atrocities against women in BJP-ruled states, especially Uttar Pradesh.

On Sunday, based on a social media post, TMC alleged on X that a girl from Bengal, on a religious tour, was sexually assaulted in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura in public. Trinamool wrote on X: “Every day, UP’s rotting underbelly is laid bare! In Mathura, a girl from West Bengal, on a religious journey, faced the horrors of public sexual assault. Is this @BJP4UP’s idea of NARI SAMMAN? This is the brutal reality under the regime of criminals. Isn’t it, CM@myogiadityanath? Does Modi’s Guarantee mean NO women safety?”