SIR: Number of women voters in Bengal fall from 3.77 cr to 3.44 cr

Kolkata: After Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee recently accused the BJP and the Election Commission of targeting women voters in the state and termed the saffron party “misogynistic”, data appears to support her claim, showing a sharper decline in the number of women voters than men in Bengal’s electoral rolls.

According to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) data, women electors declined from about 3.77 crore to 3.44 crore, a drop of 8.7 per cent, while male voters declined from 3.89 crore to 3.60 crore, a drop of around 7.5 per cent. Women still constitute nearly half of the state’s 7.04 crore electorate.

Trinamool Congress leaders have alleged that as the 2021 Assembly poll results indicated a clear gender tilt towards the ruling party, it was a deliberate attempt by the BJP and its “associate” the Election Commission of India (ECI) to “target” the women voters.

Incidentally, the women voters have emerged as a decisive political force, as was evident in the results of recent polls. According to data, Trinamool Congress had secured over 50 per cent of the women’s vote in the 2021 Assembly polls in Bengal. The BJP, on the other hand, had secured around 37 per cent among women voters.

Trinamool Congress is among the political parties in the country that has ensured around 37 per cent women representation in Parliament. The ruling party in Bengal has always given priority to women.

The state government’s ground-breaking “Lakshmir Bhandar” scheme brought a socio-economic change in the lives of crores of women in the state. The ruling party in the state also alleged that the BJP before last Lok Sabha elections, passed women reservation bill but the saffron party did not field women candidates in one-third seats.

The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, passed as the 106th Constitution Amendment Act, 2023, mandates a 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha, State Legislative Assemblies, aiming to enhance women’s representation in legislative bodies, with seats for women also reserved within existing SC/ST quotas.

Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, from the sit-in protest at Metro Channel on Sunday, stated that thousands of women’s names have now been removed from the list because of “hasty” and “unscientific” implementation of SIR. She also said that the BJP is against women, accusing it of undermining women’s participation in democracy.