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Journalism of Courage
As the poll battle in West Bengal heats up, Sandeshkhali has emerged as the focal point, with the BJP zeroing in on allegations of sexual abuse of women in the area by strongmen of the ruling Trinamool Congress.
During his second trip to West Bengal in less than a week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday also kept his guns trained on the issue, accusing the TMC of unleashing “a reign of terror” against women in the state, at the party’s ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Abhinandan Karyakram’ mega rally at Barasat.
The BJP’s line of attack isn’t surprising as the TMC is believed to solidly have the support of two Ms – Muslims and mahila (women) – in West Bengal. Mamata Banerjee is also the only woman Chief Minister at the moment.
In terms of women electorate, as per the Election Commission’s updated rolls, Bengal has 3.73 crore women voters, 15 lakh less than the registered male voters. However, there is increasing registration of women voters, with their numbers rising as much as 9.8% between 2019 and 2024 (the increase for men, probably given their already high registration, was 7.39%). More significantly, women turned out to vote at a higher rate than men in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls – 81.79% against 81.35% for men. The elections were an eye-opener for the TMC, giving the BJP a stunning 18 seats, just 4 behind the TMC’s 22.
In the 2021 Assembly elections that followed, the BJP built on that, by emerging as the main Opposition party, with the CPI(M) and Congress reduced to 0.
However, there was no clear pattern to be drawn between party performances and women voters.
In 2019, the women voters outnumbered men in just 1 seat out of the state’s total of 42, Dum Dum, which was won by the TMC. In terms of absolute turnout (the number of registered voters who turned out to vote), they were ahead in 6 – Maldaha Uttar, Jangipur, Maldaha Dakshin, Baharampur, Murshidabad and Ghatal. Of these, the TMC won 3, the Congress 2 (its only seats in the state), and the BJP 1.
In 17 seats, the women’s turnout (which is the percentage of registered women voters who actually voted) was higher than that for men. Of these seats, the TMC won 8, the BJP 7 and Congress 2. In 7 of these seats, the turnout gap was more than 5% points. In Maldaha Uttar, the gap between women and men turnouts was as much as 7.79% points.
Women’s turnout in West Bengal
A total of 25 seats saw a higher turnout percentage for men than women – of these seats, the TMC won 14 and the BJP 11. In 10 of these seats, the men’s turnout exceeded women’s by less than 1% point. Only one seat – Jadavpur – saw men turnout at greater 5% points more than women.
In Basirhat, where Sandeshkhali is located, there were 8.14 lakh women electors in 2019, of whom 6.79 lakh, or 83.49%, turned out to vote. The seat saw the sixth highest overall turnout in the state but only the 22nd highest turnout for women, with the turnout for men outnumbering that for women by nearly 4% percentage points.
With the TMC on the defensive, party MP Mahua Moitra targeted the BJP over its first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, pointing out that only 28 of its 195 announced names were women. “A measly 14%. Whatever happened to the 33% reservation? Where is Nari Shakti?” she posted on X.
