In Karnataka, poll guarantees helped Cong win over women voters: BJP leaders

According to party leaders, BJP failed to assess the impact of the Congress guarantees that were conveyed to the voters months ahead of the May 10 election.

The Bharatiya Janata Party believes that guarantees from the Congress that promised 200 units of free power to all households, ₹2,000 to the woman head of every family per month, and free travel for women caused it to lose support from women voters in Karnataka, a loss that hurt it overall, but especially in constituencies reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

The Congress increased its tally from 78 to 135 in the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections. (Representational image)

The BJP, which won 104 seats in 2018 in the state, won only 65 seats. The Congress increased its tally from 78 to 135. The BJP did not win any of the 15 ST seats and its tally fell to 12 in the 36 SC reserved seats. In 2018 the party won 7 seats in ST constituencies and 16 of the seats reserved for SCs.

According to senior party leader who asked not to be named, the BJP failed to assess the impact of the Congress guarantees that were conveyed to the voters months ahead of the May 10 election. “The BJP has a record of providing social welfare schemes and programmes, but the Congress this time made a sharp move by reaching out to households with guarantees well ahead of the elections and before the release of the BJP’s manifesto,” the leader said.

To match the Congress’s assurance of a monthly dole for women, the BJP came up with the Onakke Obavva Samajike Nyaya Nidhi, matching any amount of up to ₹10,000 for deposits made under the scheme by women from SC and ST households. It also announced free bus rides for three million working women and students, hostels for working women and female students in several districts< and a hike in pension for widows from ₹800 to ₹2,000 per month.

However, the Congress not only had the first mover advantage, as it announced these before the BJP’s manifesto was released, but the party also underlined the delivery of promises made when the party was in power earlier, the leader quoted above said.

The BJP’s announcement of free cooking gas to blunt the anger over inflation and high prices of essentials was dubbed by the leader as too little, too late. As part of its manifesto, the BJP promised three free cylinders to poor during festive season.

While no voting day data is available to bear out the BJP’s thinking, exit poll data does seem to indicate that it is the case. According to the Axis My India and India Today poll, more women -- 44% of the vote share -- voted for the Congress party as compared to 33% for the BJP. Among men, Congress likely got the support of 40% of voters and the BJP of 35%, the survey added.

Based on the outcome of the Karnataka polls, the leader said the party will have to revisit its stated position on freebies ahead of the assembly elections scheduled for later this year in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Mizoram and Rajasthan. To be sure, while the BJP has targeted freebies, it hasn’t been hesitant to dole them out itself -- for instance, in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP government has announced a cash transfer scheme for women. In March, the state government announced the Mukhya Mantri Ladli Behna Yojna for women between 23-60 years of age, which will come into effect from June onwards and through Direct Beneficiary Transfer credit ₹1000 into the account of eligible selected women.

“In most of the elections fought since 2014, women have been a significant constituency. Since the Congress and other parties such as the AAP have now begun targetted interventions for women, the BJP will need to come up with a better plan to ensure support from women voters, who in several elections have outnumbered men in terms of voting,” a second leader said on condition of anonymity.

This leader also admitted that the Revri (freebie) vs welfare narrative will need to be reviewed, since the rational about government spending and revenue deficit does not resonate on the ground.

“It is difficult to explain the concept of freebies and the impact they have on government spending, when the opponents are wooing voters with promises of free power and gas and we have seen this happen in Delhi, where the AAP has been successful in winning elections promising freebies,” the second leader said.

While PM Modi dubbed the practice of freebies as “dangerous” for the development of the country, the BJP In a letter to the election commission last year, said the party maintains a distinction between freebies and welfare measures and considers the former as means to allure voters. The BJP said then that welfarism is a policy intervention aimed at inclusive growth and announcements such as providing affordable housing and free ration cannot be compared to sops such as providing free units of electricity. Opponents have dismissed there as mere semantics -- that the BJP defines its own freebies as welfare, and the opposition’s as Revri.