BJP’s Mahila Morcha kicks off a massive year-long programme ahead of LS polls
New Delhi: As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) gears up its poll preparedness in the run-up to the impending general elections next year, leaving no stones unturned, the party’s women’s wing too kicked off its year-long programmes from January 2023.
The BJP Mahila Morcha has, however, segregated its programme month-wise.
Earlier, during the recently-concluded national executive meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had sent out a message to reach out to voters more and strengthen the party’s organisation at every booth level.
The roadmap had been finalised during its National Executive Council meeting held in Tumkur last week in January, when the women’s wing organised rangoli drawing programmes to welcome G20 in public places, highlighting the achievements of Indian women across the world.
In February, the ‘Kamal Doot Abhiyan’ will be launched to conduct training sessions for women volunteers at the gram panchayat and ward level (for BJP-ruled areas) on the central and local governments’ women-centric achievements, promotion of government schemes and maximisation of the base of beneficiaries.
Along with various party campaign activities, a website will also be created to invite applications and the interested people would have to provide details like name, location details, and a list of followers along with their contact numbers.
All the applications will be given a score based on their profile and the number of followers.
Adding selfies with women beneficiaries of various schemes from across all age groups and economic backgrounds, the event will begin with a selfie with Mahila Labharti on social media. More than 1 crore selfies will be posted on social media between February this year to the same period of time next year, using the #selfiewithMahilalabharti hashtag.
In March, the mega meeting will be organised at the national level, headed by central ministers with women representatives coming from different backgrounds, in each state with a prominent woman minister of state and state Mahila Morcha president.
Frontline women workers, municipal sweepers, health workers, noteworthy women from marginalised sections, in every district, will be honoured by the women’s wing. Moreover, to ensure transparency and authenticity, a committee will be formed with bureaucrats and subject matter experts.
In April, millet food festivals are to be organised at the district level, in collaboration with the ministry of women and child development, CSOs, SHGs, women’s food and nutrition influencers, where health benefits of millets and ways of cooking millets will be shared in these festivals. In May, programmes will be held on Tribal welfare. A mini-documentary series or a prime-time episode has also been planned to be broadcasted on invited news channels.
In June, programmes will be held with influential women intellectuals and professionals at 100 places across the country. Women welfare schemes pamphlets and brochures will be disseminated and senior party leaders will address such meetings.
In July, the BJP Mahila Morcha will organise focused voter registration drives for women electors and awareness regarding the four qualifying dates (January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1) so that the left out electors can be registered soon.
For the drives, the party will collaborate with college administration, NGOs and panchayats. Senior union cabinet minister will launch the campaign website, opening the platform for women to enrol. Interested people will have the option to pledge their first vote for the prime minister.
In August, Mahila Morcha leaders will meet with transport union presidents to celebrate ‘Raksha Bandhan’ and reiterate the posting of essential helpline numbers related to women’s safety.
Whereas, in September, the BJP women’s wing leaders will visit government and prominent private college girls’ hostels in each district and interact with students to identify the challenges faced by students who migrate for higher education, and to spread awareness regarding women-oriented schemes to encourage them to register as voters.
In October, the Mahila Morcha, coordinated with Anganwadi workers, will reach out to mothers and young children under the Poshan Abhiyan.
They would spread awareness and organise a healthy community lunch for young girls.
The next month, a direct interaction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with women voters will be organised in the form of a townhall in a premier women’s college, where PM Modi to highlight the key steps taken by the BJP government for women of the country and interact with selected participants.
The live telecast of the town hall will be held at one-way locations in all districts and six two-way locations at the zonal level.
At the concluding part of the year-long programme, in December, special arrangements are to be made for ‘Kamal Doots’ to travel from different districts and states by state Mahila Morcha teams.
According to data, women have played a pivotal role in the recent elections. Especially, in UP, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa assembly elections, data indicates that more women seem to have voted for the BJP than men.
The BJP used to have a gender disadvantage with women before 2014, but the party managed to close this gap during the 2019 Lok Sabha election. The trend was also visible in the Bihar assembly elections in 2020 and in the Assam assembly elections in 2021.
Hence, the top brass of BJP has decided to increase its vote share at least by 15-20 per cent in every booth where it is already strong. Especially, in weak booths, the party wants to get 50 per cent of the votes, party sources said.
