BJP has a huge lead of 13 percentage points over SP+ among this segment of voters
BJP has a huge lead of 13 percentage points over SP+ among this segment of voters
The women’s vote in Uttar Pradesh has clearly emerged as a key determining factor behind the BJP’s smooth victory. Had it not been for him, the BJP would not have won as many seats as it had won. Lokniti’s post-poll survey data confirms that the BJP managed a massive 13 percentage point lead over the SP+ among women voters. The BJP’s advantage over the SP alliance among male voters was only 5 percentage points (Table 1).
The BJP’s lead over the SP alliance was the fastest among the youngest and oldest female voters. It was 15 percentage points among women aged 18-25 years and was more than 18 percentage points among women aged 56 years and above. Significantly, young male voters in the age group of 18-25 were as likely to vote for the SP as they were for the BJP as opposed to their female counterparts, underlining the crucial role played by young women voters in the BJP’s victory. We do.
In terms of caste and community, the sharpest gender difference with respect to the BJP can be observed in the upper caste community, where women supported the BJP in a greater proportion than men (90% as opposed to 83%). The BJP has a bigger edge over the SP among rural women (a difference of 16 percentage points) as compared to the urban (a difference of 6 percentage points). The gender gap with respect to the BJP was also sharpest among the wealthy.
The Modi and Yogi governments came up with various women-centric schemes, including the most talked-about free ration scheme, to attract women voters, and that seems to have worked to some extent. Our survey shows that the BJP had a greater edge over the SP+ than men, who considered food supply to be a very important polling issue (18 percentage points vs. 6 percentage points) (Table 2).
On the law and order front, both men and women were equally likely to say it had improved (seven in ten did). Here too, the BJP had a higher lead over the SP+ among women who thought so compared to men (27 percentage points versus 22 percentage points).
more voting
Two other interesting trends were observed with respect to women in this election. First, the female turnout again exceeded the male turnout and this seems to have been largely due to the participation of rural women.
Post-election survey data showed that the turnout gap between rural and urban women was in the double digits. Given that the BJP had a huge advantage over the SP among rural women, this jump in women’s rural participation is significant.
Second, not only did women turn out more, they also emerged as more ‘independent voters’ than in 2017. In Lokniti’s 2017 post-election survey, 47% of women said they had consulted someone before voting. Only 32% did in this election. It is also important to point out that in the survey, female respondents were more likely than males to regard female candidates as a very important voting consideration (47% versus 35%) and yet females were not attracted to Congress. , which gave 40%. ticket to female candidates
Vibha Atri is a Research Associate at Lokniti-CSDS, Delhi and Sudhir Khare teaches Political Science at DAV College, Azamgarh, UP.