EXPLAINER
The tone was clear: the results were mixed for Modi's BJP. And India will see a drop in the number of women parliamentarians in its incoming parliament.
Ahead of International Women's Day, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held an unusual campaign event ahead of the country's mammoth national election: He spoke at an all-women rally in the eastern state of India. West Bengal.
Women voters, Modi said, were his shield against criticism of his government's decade-long rule. His comments were in line with Modi's – and his government's – focus on women, who make up 49 percent of the country's population.
From the distribution of cooking gas connections to calls for greater safety for women, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), under Modi, has presented itself as a champion of the interests of Indian women, despite some of His policies have been criticized for being rooted more in grandstanding than in facts.
And multiple polls before India's elections suggested that support for the BJP among women was higher than among men, in contrast to the opposition.
But a week after India's election results became clear, with the BJP falling short of a majority and relying on coalition allies to form the government sworn in on Sunday, a complex picture is emerging about how they actually voted. women in 2024. The results also show a break with the trend of increasing the number of elected parliamentarians in recent years.
Al Jazeera looks at how the BJP courted voters, how its female candidates performed, how women voted and the state of representation in the incoming Indian parliament.
What are some of the BJP's most important speeches towards women?
- Access to LPG cylinders: In May 2016, Modi launched the Ujjwala (the word means “bright” in Sanskrit) scheme aimed at supplying cooking gas cylinders to every household. Since then, in multiple advertising campaigns, the BJP has portrayed Modi as a leader who rescued millions of women from having to rely on coal and wood for cooking. Government data shows gas cylinder coverage rose from 55 per cent in 2016 to 97 per cent in 2020, although other data suggests many cylinder recipients have been able to afford refills, raising questions about the plan.
- Maternity licence: In 2017, the BJP government pushed through legal amendments that gave formal sector workers six months of paid maternity leave, double what they had previously. Critics point out that the semi-formal and informal sectors dominate when it comes to India's workforce and offer much less protection to workers, especially women. Overall, India's female labor participation rate has fallen in recent years, meaning fewer women are seeking employment.
- Women's safety: In a country where almost 90 rapes are reported every day, women's safety is a key concern. Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, has long had a reputation for being particularly unsafe. Under the current BJP government in the state, under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Uttar Pradesh now records the highest conviction rate in the country for cases involving crimes against women. Critics, however, point out that the total number of crimes against women has also increased year on year in the state.
- Women Reservation Bill: Passed by Parliament in September 2023 after six failed attempts since its introduction in 1996, this law aims to ensure that women occupy at least one-third, or 33 per cent, of the seats in the Lok Sabha and in the state legislative assemblies. However, the bill will not be implemented before 2029 and will only be implemented after a census exercise followed by delimitation. That delay, and the procedural hurdles that must be overcome, “make its implementation uncertain,” Jagdeep Chhokar, co-founder of the Association for Democratic Reforms, which works on electoral and political reforms, told Al Jazeera.
- Triple ban on talaq: The Modi government claims to have liberated Indian Muslim women by banning the practice of triple talaq, which allowed men the option of a near-instant divorce by chanting the word “talaq” three times. Critics point out that the ban plays into anti-Muslim stereotypes by portraying Muslim men as particularly regressive, even as Modi's government has taken steps that appear to run counter to the interests of Muslim women. In 2022, the Modi government authorized the early release of the convicted rapists of Bilkis Bano, a Muslim woman, during the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in the state of Gujarat, where Modi was prime minister at the time. The Supreme Court overturned that decision in January 2024.
Did women voters flock to the BJP?
The data suggests that the approach did not particularly resonate with women voters, according to a post-poll survey by Lokniti, a research program of the New Delhi-based Center for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS).
The party won by far the most seats and votes in Parliament: 240 seats and 37 percent of the votes.
But within those numbers, a larger fraction of male voters (37 per cent) chose the BJP than female voters (36 per cent). These figures are similar to the support the party received in 2019.
That contrasts with the figures of the main opposition party, the Congress. This year, 22 percent of women voted for Congress, a 2 percent increase from 2019. By comparison, 21 percent of men voted for Congress this year.
Chhokar said most women “see through” politically motivated programs like those the BJP has promoted.
“They see that these programs are not real and are only for them to vote on. They have seen the implementation over the years,” she said.
How many BJP women won the 2024 elections?
The BJP has also not surpassed its rivals when it comes to sending women MPs to Parliament.
Without a doubt, its overall seat count means that the BJP has more female MPs – and more male MPs too – than any other party. Of the 74 women elected to the Lok Sabha this year, 30 are from the BJP.
But those 30 represent 12.5 per cent of the BJP's total 240 seats.
In contrast, women won 13.1 per cent of Congress seats and 38 per cent of All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) seats. The Trinamool Congress is part of the INDIA opposition alliance with the Congress.
In 2019, 41 of the BJP's 303 seats were held by women, making women MPs 13.5 per cent of BJP MPs in the last election. For Congress, this percentage was 11.5 per cent and for Trinamool it was 40.9 per cent in 2019.
How have women performed in Indian elections over the years?
However, the low number of women parliamentarians is not a party-specific phenomenon.
“All political parties want women only as voters and not as elected representatives,” Chhokar said. “Men in political parties do not want to share power with women.”
In 1951, 22 women were elected parliamentarians, making up about 5 per cent of the Lok Sabha. This figure has increased steadily, especially in the last three decades, reaching 14.3 percent in 2019.
However, in 2024 there was a slight drop in the number of female MPs in parliament, with 74 female MPs, compared to the 2019 elections, in which 78 women were elected.
