The most important take away from #KarnatakaElections2018 is busting of myth that party with a feminist outlook will get higher votes.

For the first time in India a party claiming to work for women empowerment fielded its candidates. To convey their agenda the name of this party was also chosen as “Mahila Empowerment Party” (Meaning Women Empowerment Party). This feminist political party had a sizable budget and successfully engaged media, participated in shows, placed lots of ads, carried out a campaign on large scale etc. for their candidates across the state.

In one of the constituency a candidate Satish Babu contested election. The interesting part about this candidate was he was a men’s rights activist.

The Campaign was done on low profile with low on budget. One of his slogan was “Beti Bachao Beta ko bhi Bachao’ (Meaning save males also not only females) to end hate politics normally practiced by feminists. Though neither the candidate of the Feminist party, nor this MRA candidate won the election but a interesting finding was that the MRA candidate got 27% more vote than the Feminist Mahila Empowerment Party’s candidate.

Another important finding in Karnataka Elections 2018 was the impact of NOTA. (NOTA – None of The Above is an option for voter in the Ballot machine along with the choice of candidates. A voter has the option to press the NOTA button which means the voter is exercising the choice to vote, but not giving vote to any of the candidates as they are not fit for the post.). Since the existing party candidates were not taking up the issues of men, the MRA groups appealed to people to opt for NOTA.

MRA’s also informed the voters that suppressing men in the guise of empowering women will only wreck the family, the basic building block of society and eventually shake the foundations of the nation. It is a Nation’s loss when young men in their prime, run around courts to prove their innocence, fighting #FakeCases for years.

The percentage of NOTA votes show that the BJP ended up short of an overall simple majority for ignoring Men’s Rights. As Modi Sarkar has been following a democracy model which is “Of the people, By the people, For the women”. BJP in its overzealous drive to nurture a women’s vote bank have kept ignoring the plight of Men and Boys, falsely implicated in cases pertaining to Rape, Domestic Violence, POCSO, IPC Section 498a and have gone much further than Congress in spreading Misandry.

NOTA made its debut in Karnataka during this assembly election and made an impact to the BJP’s detriment. NOTA has the fifth largest voting percentage in the State of Karnataka wherein 3,22,841 votes were cast, even though many were not aware of NOTA. NOTA has been the difference in 5 seats, whose loss is very much being felt by BJP.

No Constituency BJP Loss Margin NOTA 1 Badami 1696 2007 2 Gadag 1868 2007 3 Hirekerur 555 972 4 Kundgol 634 1032 5 Maski 213 2049

NOTA had made the difference in 24 seats (lost by BJP) in Gujarat assembly elections, where in 5.5 Lakh NOTA votes were cast. BJP would have to pay an even higher price in the Lok Sabha elections of 2019, if they continue to ignore Men’s rights.

This clearly shows that #MenVote is important and more that feminist vote. We have already seen this in the US when Hillary was openly feminist and Trump was a non feminist. With the victory of Trump the feminist claims have already been shattered in the US it has started to happen in India too.

If Modi Sarkar really means “Justice for All, Appeasement of None”, all laws have to be made gender neutral by replacing Husband/Wife with Spouse and He/She with Person. Automatic punishment has to be given to the false complainant, with the same quantum which an accused would get, so that it will deter false cases, resulting in reducing judicial delays. A Commission for Men and a Ministry for Men will have to be formed. Government has to hear the voice of Men and Boys when they frame laws affecting 50% of the population.`