lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Apr 08, 2019 14:58 IST

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is working overtime to woo women electorate, who outnumber men in 16 assembly segments of four Lok Sabha constituencies of Himachal Pradesh.

As part of its election strategy, the party has planned women’s conventions in all the 68 assembly constituencies in the state and BJP’s election managers have set April 14 as the date to complete the exercise.

“So far the party has held women’s conventions in 48 assembly segments. We intend to organise such meets in the remaining segments within a week,” said BJP general secretary Chander Mohan Thakur.

Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur and party’s Lok Sabha candidates had attended some of these meets, he added.

Chander Mohan said woman electorate outnumbered men in Jai Singhpur and Sulah of Kangra Lok Sabha seat; Nachan, Jogindernagar, Balh, Mandi, Sarkaghat, Lahaul and Spiti of Mandi seat; Dharampur, Sujanpur, Dehra, Ghumarwein, Hamirpur and Badsar in Hamirpur seat and Jubbal and Kotkhai in Shimla.

Sulah in Kangra district had 48,618 women voters, the highest in the state, he said.

“Women in Himachal are empowered and aware of their rights. Their involvement in development works is much more than men. It’s the women who have made the Swatch Bharat Abhiyan successful in the state,” he said.

Women voters in Himachal Pradesh constitute 48.71% of the registered 51.59 lakh voters. In the 2017 assembly elections in the state, the women turnout at polling stations surpassed that of men. Off the total 37 lakh votes polled in the assembly elections, the number of women voters was over 19 lakh against 18 lakh men.

State BJP Mahila Morcha chief Indu Goswami, meanwhile, said the party was focusing on enrolling more women in the party. “The women membership has already crossed 57,000,” she said.

Not only women, the saffron party is also planning to conduct youth conventions across the state. “So far, youth conventions have been organised in 40 assembly segments,” said party leader Vishal Chauhan.