During the elections, women voters were seen as an important constituency. Some media reports had raised this aspect, particularly since turnout figures after each phase had indicated a greater participation of women as compared to men. Eventually, the overall turnout among women went up by five percentage points from 54.5 per cent in 2010 to 59.9 in 2015. Therefore, the pertinent question arises whether this higher turnout among women voters made any significant difference to the final electoral outcome. It did to some extent but it would be wrong to exaggerate its importance. Lokniti’s post-poll survey data found there was no substantial difference among men and women while voting for the grand alliance. This goes against the popular perception that women voters were behind the maha gathbandhan’s success and that they favoured it more than men did due to Nitish Kumar’s welfare schemes for women. WATCH VIDEO: Bihar Verdict 360°-IE’s Editors Answer The 6 Questions That Explain The Big Picture In fact, women were slightly less likely to rate Nitish favourably on governance issues than men were. When voters were asked to assess his governance and developmental work, men rated him a bit higher. If there was a gender advantage for Nitish, it was among men. WATCH VIDEO: Parties React To Bihar Results: Rahul Gandhi, Kailash Vijayvargiya & Javed Raza Speak That said, the grand alliance did have a gender advantage among women belonging to some socio-economic groups. For instance, if we look at it in terms of age, young women voters voting for the first time voted in greater proportions for the grand alliance than their male counterparts. In terms of economic background, the advantage for the grand alliance was visible among the women from the poor class. In terms of caste, gender mattered among Kurmis, Paswans and to some extent lower OBCs and Muslims with more women from these communities voting for the grand alliance than their male counterparts. [related-post] Finally, the gender factor if anything is more visible with respect to the NDA. The BJP-led alliance had a disadvantage with women as a greater proportion of men (35 per cent) voted for it than women (33 per cent). This isn’t unusual though. This was the case even during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, both in Bihar and nationally. Women usually tend to vote for the BJP less than men do. The authors are researchers at Lokniti-CSDS
