Bihar first phase polling: Women sympathetic to Nitish Kumar

One thing seemed obvious: women voters are still sympathetic to Nitish Kumar.

When Rekha Devi, Sanju Devi and Nandini Devi were through with casting their votes at a polling booth in Amarpur assembly segment of Banka, they were diplomatic about their voting choices. The awareness of their voting rights and their enthusiasm were apparent by their urgency to vote, more so because their men folk work outside Bihar and are not being able to vote.

In the first phase of the assembly polls on Monday, 59.5 per cent of women came out to vote, while the male turnout was 54.5 per cent: a five per cent difference. Women’s voting share in Bihar has been increasing since the Lok Sabha 2009 elections when they gave the Nitish-led NDA 32 out of 40 seats. It was a vote for Nitish’s flurry of development schemes, especially the bicycle and uniform schemes. Nitish had also created a caste-neutral constituency by giving 50 per cent reservation to women at the panchayat and local bodies’ level. It was a different kind of social engineering that split open the caste realities of Bihar. The increase in women’s participation is also because of their awareness and booth-level management of political parties.

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The first phase of 2015 Assembly elections indicates aggressive polling for both political combinations. There are mixed and confusing signals of heavy votes in favour of Nitish Kumar and also for Narendra Modi. There are signs of aggressive Muslim voting thanks to the beef controversy.

Of the 49 seats that went to polls, the Grand Alliance had won 31 in the last Assembly polls and BJP had got only 13 seats. This phase looks to give Nitish camp an edge but if the NDA draws level it would give have an early advantage.

One thing seemed obvious: women voters are still sympathetic to Nitish. However, there’s a new generation of smart voters out there and with their diplomatic responses, the media’s task of assessing the vote is that much more difficult. As a Congress leader put it, the battle for Bihar looks like five-set match between Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.