Bihar Politics / Nitish's credibility fell as women's votes increased, controversial statement will further harm JDU!

Bihar Politics: Nitish Kumar is in the headlines again for making controversial remarks on a female MLA in the Bihar Assembly. In the last 3 years, the Bihar Chief Minister has slipped his tongue 4 times regarding women. The opposition has linked Nitish Kumar's controversial statement on Rekha Devi to women's respect. The opposition's strategy is to shift the remaining female votes to Nitish Kumar's side with the help of this issue. Women in Bihar were once considered Nitish Kumar's core voters, but if we look at the data of the last 2 elections, whenever women voted more since 2010, Nitish Kumar's party's performance declined.

Women ahead of men in voting

Usually men are ahead of women in voting, but in the last 3 elections in Bihar, women have voted more than men. According to the Election Commission, in 2010, 53 percent men voted in Bihar, while 54.5 percent of women voted.

Women were ahead in voting in the 2015 assembly elections as well. In this election, 51.1 percent men voted, while the voting turnout of women was 60.4 percent. In this election, women had about 9 percent more votes than men.

In the 2020 assembly elections also, women were ahead in voting compared to men. In the 2020 election, 54.6 percent of men voted, while 59.7 percent women voted in this election. According to the Election Commission, there are 7.64 crore total voters in Bihar, out of which 4 crore are male and 3.6 crore are female voters.

Nitish's credibility fell as women's votes increased

In 2010, the gap between the vote percentage of women and men was only 1.5 percent. In this election, Nitish Kumar's party won 115 seats in the assembly, which was just 7 seats short of the majority. In 2015, women voted heavily compared to men. Nitish's performance declined in this election. Nitish Kumar's party became the second largest party in the assembly. It won only 71 seats.

In the 2020 elections too, women voted more than men. In this election, Nitish Kumar's party reached third place. It won only 43 assembly seats. According to CSDS, in 2020, the Grand Alliance got 37 percent of women's votes and the NDA got 38 percent.

JDU's performance was the worst in the NDA. Nitish Kumar's party gave tickets to 22 women in 2020, out of which only 6 women were able to reach the House by winning the election. BJP had fielded 13 women in this election and it won 8 seats.

Will the controversial statement on women backfire?

Assembly elections are to be held in Bihar after 15 months from now, but the way Nitish Kumar has been in controversies over his comments on women, the question arises whether this will backfire politically for him in the 2025 elections?

After winning the election in 2005, Nitish Kumar started trying to woo women. For this, he first arranged for 50 percent reservation for women in jobs in the education and police departments.

Nitish was also seen trying to woo women voters through self-help groups. To woo women voters, Nitish also included many women leaders in his kitchen cabinet.

These included the names of Manju Verma, Renu Kushwaha, Bima Bharti and Lacey Singh. Currently, except Lacey Singh, 3 women leaders are either away from JDU or Bihar politics.