By Sushil Kutty
Women voters are the target of all political parties of the country on the eve of the Lok Sabha polls. This is more so in West Bengal which has a fiery woman chief minister Mamata Banerjee. So in Bengal, it has always been Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the icon of BJP and Mamata, the supremo of Trinamool Congress engaged in a battle to prove who is the best custodian of women folks.
PM chose to visit Bengal on March 1 and 2 for holding meetings at a time when the controversy over Sandeshkhali incidents involving TMC’s Sheikh Shahjahan was at its peak. But Mamata organized his arrest a day before to dilute the level of the PM’s diatribes against the TMC administration over Shahjahan’s atrocities against women. For both the PM and the CM, the atrocities on the women at Sandeshkhali are a sort of poll issue, nothing more..
Women voters are a force to reckon with everywhere from West Bengal to all over the country. And cooking is a salve women value. So, Mamata Banerjee has warned them that the Bharatiya Janata Party cannot be trusted with cooking gas. Moreover, hitting where it hurts is great politics and the BJP, especially Prime Minister Narendra Modi, makes a great hue and cry over “Nari Shakti”. What greater gaslighting, therefore, than to manipulate women voters into self-doubt over the Prime Minister’s trustworthiness, notwithstanding “Modi’s Guarantees”?
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has sown the seed, letting female voters into the secret that the BJP cannot be given the key to their kitchens, they wouldn’t know what poison would be cooking once too much saffron ends up in the cooking. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is 100% sure, Modi will promise one thing and do another thing, it’s in the BJP’s nature. If women voters overlook Modi’s nature and vote for the BJP, there will be a knife in the back, painful to the household budget.
As it is, contrary to some ideologies, there is no life after death. Think of split milk and the more colourful “Jab Chidiya Chuk Gayi…” The Modi government’s record on LPG priced is a matter of record and Mamata Banerjee is serious about women regretting if they voted to bring about a third successive BJP term. The Chief Minister is also worried about the Sandeshkhali horror fallout.
Like everywhere else in the country, West Bengal too has nearly 50% women vote-share and the BJP must be seriously eyeing grabbing the majority if not the entire lot. For the Bharatiya Janata Party, West Bengal is not a state, it’s a project and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is right now on a limb, the upcoming general elections will tell how far out on the limb! Banerjee has not only the BJP to worry about, there is also the Congress and the ‘Left’.
Banerjee got rid of Sheikh Shahjahan right in time. The fellow was bleeding Trinamool votes even as votes polarized along communal lines. But Mamata cannot take the risk of betting women voters against consolidating Muslim votes behind the Trinamool Congress. Too much is at stake and that the LPG price would be increased if Modi is returned to power is not important, what is important is preventing Narendra Modi from returning to power.
At least, the TMC Chief scared women voters into talking gas prices. People at her rallies have to worry about collecting firewood for cooking. “We distributed rice free of cost … If they (BJP) win again, the gas price can be increased up to Rs 1,500-2,000. You have to collect cow dung and wood again for cooking,” Mamata Banerjee let it sink. Fact is, rising prices have been the frequent talk of many towns during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two consecutive terms.
Not satisfied with gas price, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also raised the communal situation in the country and blamed the Modi government for letting things to pass. She also spoke of funding the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana if the “Centre does not release the necessary funds by April 1”. Both LPG and housing are important to women voters and the BJP’s dependence on “labarthis” for winning elections is well-known to all and sundry.
The important thing is women voters will surpass male voters in another five years, definitely by the 2029 general elections, says a report and no government, at the Centre and in the States, will be formed without women taking the vanguard. For the here and now, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee knows that Sheikh Shahjahan should have stuck to building a Taj Mahal instead of the Sandeshkhali House of Horrors. Whether LPG prices will increase if the BJP government is returned to power is incidental to the story in which women voters have the veto. (IPA Service)
