The fate of candidates in the Assembly polls this time round seems clearly in the hands of women including first time voters as Chhattisgarh gears up for second phase of polling for rest of the 72 Assembly seats on Tuesday.
A testimony to this had been huge turnout of women in the 18 Assembly seats during the first phase of polls which included 12 seats of Bastar and 6 in Rajnandgaon district. Out of the total 1.39 crore voters in Chhattisgarh, 68.30 lakh are women who would decide on the fate of 843 candidates on Tuesday from a total of 18,015 polling booths during the second phase of polls.
Ironically, the two key political parties in the poll fray — the BJP and the Congress — have fielded few women in the election. The heavy turnout of women in Bastar made political parties campaign harder during the second phase with women and first time voters as a key segment among the electorate to vote for the candidates.
The women voters defying Maoist threat and voting in large numbers was indicative of the electorate more keen on choice of right candidate than broad national issues to ensure security and development .
Women voter turnout during the first phase of Assembly polls was 75.8 per cent during the first phase. During the 2008 Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh overall turnout of women voters was 65.5 per cent. The prime reason cited behind large number of women and first time voters exercising their franchise had been development issues besides anti-incumbency factor in many of the constituencies during the first phase.
The other reason being cited for the large turnout of women voters had been security issues within their constituencies. The other factors which political observers say counted in the large turnout was the choice of candidates which had been a major issue with most voters across constituencies.
A testimony to this had been the furore created for days in front of State BJP and Congress headquarters in Raipur during the selection of candidates by supporters of various ticket seekers—a third of them were women and youth.
An equally heavy turnout of first time voters during the first phase of polls is indicative of the high aspirations among college goers from political parties and the choice of candidates in various constituencies.
Overall, during the second phase of polls, a repeat of a heavy turnout of women and first time voters is being expected as a ‘spillover’ of the trend from the first phase of polls.