Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh politics has been in turmoil for the past two years. Along with law and order issues and the crisis created by Kovid, people were suffering from high unemployment and rising prices. The Samajwadi Party was assured of victory in the 2022 Assembly elections even if these issues were pointed out. But the overwhelming support of women for the BJP thwarted the Samajwadi Party’s ambitions.
Yogi Adityanath overcame anti-government sentiment by taking women by the hand in UP. Yogi became the first leader in Uttar Pradesh to achieve success in government when Modi’s influence and support came along with claims and campaigns to ensure the safety of women. In the 403 – member assembly, the BJP won 255 seats and the NDA 273 seats. The SP alone won 111 seats and the alliance 123 seats.
Statistics show that the BJP has won more than 14 per cent more women’s support than the Samajwadi Party. But in the case of men, the difference in favor of the BJP is only five per cent. This is clear from the BJP’s support for women. The Jat community in western UP is the main group that has been protesting against the farmers’ bills introduced by the Narendra Modi government. But while 52 per cent of women in the Jat community voted for the BJP, only 40 per cent of men supported it.
In the case of SP, it turned out to be the opposite. About 50 per cent of Jat men voted for SP. Only 38 per cent women voted for Akhilesh Yadav’s party. The distribution of free rations played a major role in determining the outcome of the UP elections. At a time of crisis over unemployment and the return of migrant workers during the first wave of Kovid, the Prime Minister’s Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, a scheme to provide five kilos of rice to the poor, was announced in April 2020.
The scheme, which lasted till November that year, has about 80 crore beneficiaries. In April, May and June, the UP government also implemented a free ration scheme. When the second Kovid wave hit, the Center announced that free rations would be provided from May to October last year. This was later extended to March 2022. The UP government, which provided free rations in June, July and August, resumed ration distribution in December. It will end in March 2022.
According to the latest figures, the free ration scheme has reached 150 million out of 200 million people in the state. Opposition parties have stated they will not run in the by-elections. The free supply of rice and wheat caused the fire to burn in most families.
The BJP has also been able to use the free ration distribution as a political weapon. Yogi Adityanath had said in public that if free food grains were in the hands of the mafia when the ‘family-dominated parties’ ruled UP, now there is a government to ensure that it reaches every household.
In the three months leading up to the elections, the UP government provided 14 lakh metric tonnes of wheat, 0.95 metric tonnes of rice, 0.10 metric tonnes of peanuts, 10.19 crore liters of soybean oil and one lakh tonnes of salt as part of the Kovid package. When it reached 14.6 crore people, the exchequer spent Rs 300 crore. It is pointed out that this is what the government got back in the vote.
Most of the election promises were in the name of women. The BJP has promised to build houses and toilets, Rs 1,500 per month, two more gas cylinders, scooters for students, financial assistance for women to start ventures and piped drinking water in every household. These promises led to an increase in women’s support in urban as well as rural areas.
Observers point out that if the BJP did not have the overwhelming support of women voters until 2014, things would have changed with the 2019 elections. It is estimated that there was a large turnout of women in the last Bihar Assembly elections and the recent Assam Assembly elections. Election observers point out that Modi’s calls for women are often taken seriously and returned with a vote.
Apart from free rations, the BJP has also been successful in various central welfare schemes. Earlier, during the election campaign, Modi had alleged that money from government schemes was not reaching the people’s accounts. Apart from the Garib Anna Yojana, BJP leaders in the state claim that each family has received at least Rs 3 lakh in the last five years from the PM Awas, PM Kisan, Ujwala, Mudra loan scheme, Ayushman Bharat and state pension schemes. Just before the election, the government distributed one crore tablets among students.
English Summary: Women voters behind BJP big victory in Uttar Pradesh