Working on the strategy that women are the most significant category of voters for posting a decisive win in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as this section of the electorate cuts across all religions, castes and communities, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has chalked out a novel strategy this time.

The morcha is now engaged in a door-to-door campaign to rally women voters.

Booth level approach

The BJP Mahila Morcha has formed its own booth-level committees: a body of five women volunteers at every booth of the country to rally women voters at the most grass-roots level of Indian politics and to ensure that they come out and vote for the saffron party on the polling day.

Morcha chief Vijaya Rahatkar, in an exclusive conversation with MyNation, revealed the BJP strategy so far as women voters of the country are concerned.

“Apart from the beneficiaries of the welfare schemes heralded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, women are the most significant category that will decide the fate of the general elections. In our understanding these elections are about just two factors: PM Modi and our women voters,” Rahatkar said.

The five-member women’s committees at the booths come apart from the already existing booth committees of the BJP, an idea implemented and perfected by party chief Amit Shah.

Vijay Sankalp Sammelan-Chupal par Charcha

“In the run-up to the polls, we had organised meetings of the beneficiaries of the welfare schemes directly affecting women, such as Ujjwala, across all parliamentary constituencies,” Rahatkar said.

The Mahila Morcha, according to Rahatkar, approached every Lok Sabha seat from a macro as well as micro perspective.

“We organized two kinds of sammelans across the parliamentary constituencies. First, we held ‘Vijay Sankalp Sammelans’ at the constituency level. These were big congregations at which we gathered women beneficiaries from across the Lok Sabha seat. Secondly, we went at the micro level and organised ‘Chaupal par Charcha’. These are small gatherings of just about 25-50 women,” Rahatkar told MyNation.

Firing up zeal of vounteers

This served also as an exercise to fire up the grass-roots activists of the party. “The constituency-level sammelans were managed and addressed by the district-level leaders and activists of the Mahila Morcha, but those working at the lowest level of the organization too need to be given a sense of attachment to the party. The chaupal or panchayat level sammelans encouraged our most effective volunteers,” Rhatkar explained.

In and through this exercises, the women’s wing of the party was able to establish contact between the national chief down to the booth level volunteers. “These sammelans facilitated a direct face-to-face contact with the voters and volunteers,” she said.