BJP banking on women-centric policies to retain power in Tripura: CM Biplab Deb

NEW DELHI: As it begins preparations for the 2023 assembly elections in Tripura, the Bharatiya Janata Party sounded confident of retaining power in the northeastern state on the basis of its women-centric policies such as reserving 33% of all jobs for women and strengthening law and order. The party also asserted that the elections will be a bipolar contest between the BJP and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or the CPI(M).

On Monday, chief minister Biplab Deb, who is in the national Capital, was dismissive of the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) emerging as a threat to the ruling dispensation, and said while the BJP is confident of “winning comfortably” in the 60-member assembly, whatever opposition it will face will be from the CPI(M). “There is hardly any opposition in Tripura…whatever remains of it is the CPM,” Deb said.

The party is also readying to face an electoral battle in an upcoming bypoll for four assembly seats, the schedule for which is awaited. Two of these seats fell vacant after BJP legislators switched sides to the Congress in February.

The chief minister said the work done by the government for empowering women in the state tops the list of achievements and will put it ahead of the opponents. “We have announced 33% reservation in all jobs and also ensured that women are in key administrative and judicial positions and stakeholders in maintaining law and order. There has been a conscious effort to enroll them in the police or as magistrates since we wanted to control crime against women and strengthen law and order,” Deb said during an interaction.

In Tripura, 50% of the seats and posts have been reserved for women in local bodies as well.

In addition to focusing on women’s health and education, the state also offers coaching for competitive exams, reservation in all higher education institutions, including general degree colleges, and a 3% interest subvention scheme for girl students getting admitted to institutions of national importance, the CM said.

To encourage women start-ups, efforts are made to provide collateral free loans up to ₹2 crore with the support of credit guarantee fund trust for micro and small enterprises and earmarking 50% of funds for women entrepreneurs in the venture capital funds being set up by the state government.

The need to focus on women-centric issues was underlined by Prime Minister Narendra Modi following the favourable outcome for the BJP in the assembly elections held in February-March in Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Goa and Uttarakhand where women voters were said to have voted decisively for the party.

While addressing the Gujarat Panchayat Mahasammelan in March, Modi said the “overwhelming support that the party has received from women shows that elections will now have to be designed around issues that resonate, the most with this constituency of supporters”.

More recently, while addressing the BJP cadre on the occasion of the party’s foundation day on April 6, the prime minister said women have been at the forefront in voting for the BJP and “…this is such a social and national awakening that will be analysed in history”.

Even in 2018, the BJP with a 43% vote share (up from 1.3% in the 2013) had managed to score over its political rivals on the basis of support from women voters.

“Women usually outnumber men in Tripura when it comes to voting. But in the previous elections, we saw women show tremendous support for Modi,” said a Delhi-based BJP leader.

The party is also counting on support from the tribal population and got a shot in the arm recently when the Tripura Tribal Front announced a merger with the BJP in March. Of the 60 seats, 20 are reserved for tribal candidates. The BJP is already in alliance with the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT), which holds sway over the tribal constituencies and the party is hopeful of resolving the differences that have cropped up between the allies in the recent past.