Women are Mamata Banerjee’s core voters, but this time many want to ‘give Modi a chance’

In 2016 assembly polls, 48% women voters supported Mamata Banerjee & Trinamool. But now many say they’re dissatisfied with her govt’s performance.

Women supporting the TMC at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's election rally in Bankura, West Bengal | Representational image: PTI

Kolkata: Geeta Pal, 65, lives in Bhabanipur (earlier spelt as Bhowanipore) in south Kolkata, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s home constituency which she has left to fight from Nandigram in Purba Medinipur district in the West Bengal assembly elections this time.

Geeta, from the Kumhar (potter) caste, used to make idols of Ganesh and Laxmi. Now, she has been slowed down by age-related ailments, but has still not got the Swaasthya Sathi Card launched by Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress government in 2016, which is the reason why Bengal has not implemented the Narendra Modi government’s Ayushman Bharat insurance scheme.

She claims that she hasn’t received the benefit of a lot of schemes announced by ‘Didi’ for women in her 10 years in power. Geeta’s relative Sonika Pal concurs, saying she has deposited papers for a house grant under a state government scheme, but has not received them yet.

Another resident of Bhabanipur, Sunita Pal, said she’s only getting five kg of ration instead of the promised 10 kg.

Sangita, a 45-year-old woman who used to sell fish in the Bhabanipur market, adds: “For 35 years, we have seen the Left. We have seen 10 years of Mamata. What is the harm in giving five years to Modi? In the lockdown, I ran from office to office for a ration card, but didn’t get one.”

But Sangita gets cut off by her husband to say Mamata has done “everything” for them.

There are 3.7 crore women voters in Bengal, 49 per cent of the electorate, and a large part of Mamata Banerjee’s electoral success in 2011 and 2016 has been attributed to support from them. The CM, in turn, brought in over 200 women-centric schemes, including Kanyashree and Rupashree that provide funds for education and marriage, bicycles for girl students, education loans and much more.

But women in the villages and towns of Bengal point to poor implementation of schemes, and blame the involvement of Trinamool Congress cadres in corruption while facilitating schemes, which they say harmed the main idea of women empowerment.

Now, with its women-centric manifesto, the BJP is going all out to woo Mamata’s “silent voters” into its camp.

Women turning away from Mamata, but not alarmingly

According to data from the Centre for Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, 42 per cent of women in Bengal voted for the Trinamool Congress, 12 per cent more than in 2009.

In the 2016 assembly polls, the TMC’s vote-share among women grew to 48 per cent, as it stormed back to power while the BJP could only win three seats in all. But in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP’s vote-share among women jumped to 40 per cent as it won 18 out of the 42 seats, while the TMC won 22.

ThePrint spoke to nearly 100 women across different villages and towns in Purba Medinipur, Howrah, Hooghly and South 24 Parganas districts, and Kolkata. Of these, about 40 per cent expressed dissatisfaction with Mamata’s performance on women’s issues, mostly due to poor implementation or party cadres’ involvement in facilitating schemes.

But the other 60 per cent are still in Mamata’s corner for two key reasons — she’s a female chief minister, and the fact that she has played up her “daughter of Bengal” identity this time around, hinting that the BJP is full of “outsiders”.

Politically too, Mamata has nurtured the women’s vote bank by giving tickets to large numbers of female candidates, especially in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, when 41 per cent of her party’s candidates were women. This time around, in the assembly polls, 50 of the Trinamool’s 294 candidates (17 per cent) are women, and among the party’s promises are free delivery of ration at the doorstep and monthly cash incentives to 1.6 crore households.

However, the BJP, which is challenging Mamata for its first taste of power in the state, is aiming to dent these “silent voters”, promising many schemes from free bus travel to free education and healthcare, and more cash incentives than the Trinamool has promised. For examples, unmarried women who have completed higher secondary education have been promised Rs 2 lakh cash incentive, eight times more than Mamata’s promise of Rs 25,000.

The challenger has also taken up the issue of women’s safety, and emphasised the Centre’s Ujjwala LPG scheme to woo these voters.

Biswanath Chakraborty, professor of political science at Rabindra Bharati University, said: “Mamata got her party cadres involved to check administrative corruption in delivering government schemes. But soon, they themselves became part of the corruption. This has caused resentment in the public, though their affection for Mamata is still undimmed. But women have taken the BJP manifesto seriously, and this swing can be sensed. They may silently vote for the BJP, which can damage the TMC.”

Fashion designer-turned-state BJP Mahila Morcha (women’s wing) chief Agnimitra Paul, who is contesting the assembly polls from Asansol South, said: “Women aren’t the captive vote bank of Mamata anymore. They want to explore the BJP.”

However, TMC’s Uluberia MP Sajda Ahmed told ThePrint that all this talk of women voters drifting away from Mamata Banerjee was “propaganda”.

“Didi has done work that no politician has ever done for women. They see the TMC symbol and vote for Didi; they don’t need to see the candidate. The support is intact,” she said.

Transfer of votes

Many women in the rural areas say they will vote for BJP, but there’s a worry that the party’s poor ground network may not be able to swing these votes in its favour.

Veteran journalist and political observer Shikha Mukerjee said the “biggest challenge for the BJP is the transfer of votes”.

However, discontent and fatigue are clearly simmering among women voters. In Diamond Harbour, the Lok Sabha constituency of Mamata’s influential nephew Abhishek Banerjee, women voters complain that except bicycles and rations, other schemes for women have not reached the ground, and that corruption is high.

In Porolia Dakhin village, 48-year-old Rekha Tapas says: “We don’t get anything from Didi… Our house is made of mud; I have applied under the housing scheme but haven’t got funds, nor have I received the Swaasthya Sathi Card.

“The government has just built roads and installed lights. There’s no work; our daughter didn’t receive money under the ‘Kanyashree’ scheme, and got married without the ‘Rupashree’ money. We have voted for Didi so many times, now we should try Modi too.”

A widow who did not want to be named echoed the same sentiment, saying she didn’t get the pension promised to women who lose their husbands.

Sukhi Pasi, who lives in the same village, praised Mamata Banerjee for providing rations and the bicycle scheme for girls. But now, she wants the government to prioritise providing employment and grants under the housing scheme.

(Edited by Shreyas Sharma)