The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is confident of an electoral victory on the basis of the strong female voter base in Maharashtra. Senior party functionaries in charge of the polls in the State said most of party’s campaign in the past month has been driven towards attracting female voters, who form a strong base for the party’s electoral bank.
Even their television and newspaper advertisements are targeted at the women vote bank, party leaders said following a final review of the poll campaign in Mumbai on Thursday. A delegation of senior functionaries held a meeting under the leadership of BJP general secretary Bhupendra Yadav, who is also in charge of Maharashtra polls. The team discussed the final leg of campaigning including scheduled rallies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and Union Minister Parshottam Rupala due in Mumbai and Pune on October 18, party leaders said.
Earlier this year, the Election Commission of India added new women voters by taking their percentage to 48.13% from the previous 47%. In absolute numbers, the total registration was recorded at 4.35 crore for the women voters. “There is huge support for the BJP even as Maharastra roughly added 45 lakh voters, second after Uttar Pradesh which added 54 lakh voters. The gap between male and female voters has reduced drastically and we are confident this would drive us to victory,” said a senior party leader from New Delhi who participated in the review meet.
The party functionaries said the one-month-long campaign had concentrated all energies towards targeting the women voters. Several poll rallies were kept in constituencies with high women vote count and female candidates. “Even our poll-related advertising this past month was driven towards the females voters. We are confident this will also negate the fact Shiv Sena had opposed some of our schemes despite being an ally. The female voter will ensure that the family vote goes to BJP irrespective of the conflict in the male voters’ mind,” said a BJP leader.
