New Delhi: A day after exit polls pointed at a thumping majority for the BJP, leaders of the party said that the 'silent' women vote has helped them. In states like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, the leaders said that the feedback shows that women have overwhelmingly voted for them in the Lok Sabha polls. A key chunk of these votes, they added, are votes of Muslim women.
Welcoming the exit polls, several leaders said that most of the feedback pointed at support from women. A leader from a key North Indian state said that as per their feedback from party workers and booth committees, women have outnumbered men in voting for the BJP in states like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
“Only the results will tell us how the voting has happened, but initial feedback has shown that women across religions and castes have voted for us, especially in North India,” the leader said.
Women in UP, the leader said, have voted to keep away lawlessness.
While most pollsters indicated 340-360 seats for the BJP, in UP, the average exit poll indication was 65-67 of the state’s 80 seats for the saffron party.
The leader also said that as per their calculations, Muslim women, too, have voted for them. “There is no reason to not believe that Muslim women have not voted for us. When we think of policies, we do not discriminate among gender or religion — the 5 kg ration or the aayushman card or the toilets we build percolate to Muslim women as much as it percolates to women of other religions,” a strategist of the party said.
A senior spokesperson of the party said that when the BJP designs the welfare schemes, then women are at the centre of the focus. “The electricity, the gas, the ration, the insurance scheme — all of these have benefitted women more than men. And women think of long term gains and stick to leaders who have provided for them. Typically, they have voted for PM Modi in past elections,” the leader said.
Another voter group that the party believes have helped them is the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes voters. Contrary to the Opposition’s assertion that SC/ST voters grouped for them after they accused PM Modi of intending to change the Constitution after they win 400 seats, the party believes that PM Modi’s charge against the Opposition that they will take away SC/ST reservation to suit Muslims have benefitted them.
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