Congress game plan to garner women votes

Congress has come up with a game plan to reach out to women voters in the forthcoming elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and Lok Sabha Election in 2019.

Sushmita Dev, All India Mahila Congress chief, said, “50% of the population is women and the gap between women and men in terms of voting is just 1.46% in our country. So, it’s not that women don’t come out to vote. We believe that the party that gets the vote of the youth and the women will form the next government.”

The game plan includes corner meetings, night marches through busy streets and squares of small towns to grab maximum attention on issues such as women’s safety and price rise, chaupals or open gatherings among rural women and a campaign to get handprints of women on white pieces of cloth to highlight their insecurities which will be handed over to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The blueprint also includes a mobile app to connect voices of women on ground to the Congress’ manifesto. The app will aid interaction with female voters. They can suggest on issues and subjects to be put together in the Congress manifesto for the 2019 elections. Lok Sabha member Sushmita Dev said Congress president Rahul Gandhi will also interact with women through this app during nationwide campaign, Mahila Adhikar Yatra.

The Congress has decided to launch a countrywide campaign, Mahila Adhikar Yatra, to “spur the suppressed anger” among women over issues such as price rise and women’s safety.

“Women do attend political rallies of big leaders, but most women voters stay at home. We will go across India under the banner of Mahila Adhikar (women’s rights) yatras and take their feedback. We have developed an app that will record voices and videos of women,” Ms. Dev said.