BJP to ramp up women's representation in organisation

New Delhi: The BJP is likely to have a higher representation of women in its organisational structures, compared to its outgoing committees at various levels from booth upwards, as it prepares for the implementation of the law reserving one-third seats Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women.

Sources said in a state like Madhya Pradesh, the BJP may have at least seven to eight women districts presidents in its 62 organisational districts against the none in the outgoing set-up.

Similarly, in Bihar, the BJP recently named two women district presidents amid its ongoing nationwide organisational election exercise.

Party sources said their national leadership is of the view that it is necessary to groom a crop of women leaders bottom-up so that able candidates are in place when the law reserving one-third of Lok Sabha and assembly seats come into force.

"In the absence of genuine women alternatives, dominant male leaders will prop up women linked to their families to fill the quota. The message to us is that we must cultivate women leaders from booth upwards," a key state BJP leader said.

In Madhya Pradesh, considered a model BJP state organisation within the party, efforts have been made to ensure that at least three women are included in 11-member booth committees at most places, he said.

Similarly, the party is also continuing with its exercise to make its organisation more representative by incorporating adequate numbers of SCs, backwards and STs, sources added.

The party sources noted that basic units of organisational structure, like mandal and district units, are the most fiercely contested, and women have traditionally had an disadvantage in the male-dominated local politics.

This is true for every party, as strong local leaders want to control the areas they come from to pursue their political ambitions, they added.

The Bharatiya Janata Party is currently in the middle of its organisational election process in the run up to picking its new national president, who will replace J P Nadda. He has been at the helm since 2020 and is currently a Union minister as well.

The process to elect a new national president will begin when organisational elections are over in at least half of the states.

Party sources said the process is expected to be over in at least 30 of the around 37 organisational states by the end of this month.

The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Amendment) Bill, better known as the women's reservation bill, was passed by Parliament last year.

It reserves for women 33 per cent seats in state assemblies and Lok Sabha, and the provision will come into effect after the census and subsequent delimitation exercise.

The government is yet to announce the census, which was last held in 2011, but is tipped to do so sometime later this year.