As the NDA won a landslide victory in the Bihar Assembly elections, one of the factors that worked in the alliance's favor appears to be the large turnout of women voters.
According to the Election Commission, women exceeded men's turnout by 14 percentage points in seven districts of Bihar, while in 10 other districts, the gap was over 10 percentage points, reported news agency PTI.
Women's voter turnout was 71.78 per cent, while men's voter turnout was 62.98 per cent.
It is to be noted that ahead of the assembly polls, the Nitish Kumar government transferred ₹10,000 to over 1.21 crore women (Jivika Didis) to help them start small businesses and promised an additional ₹2 lakh for successful ventures.
According to an NDA leader, the credit for women's mandate goes particularly to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whose two-decade governance record has built a loyal, cross-caste female vote bank.
Janata Dal (United) leaders said Nitish Kumar's 2016 prohibition policy was popular with women, especially those from underprivileged backgrounds affected by alcohol-related domestic violence.
The Hindustan Times quoted Janata Dal (United) leader Sanjay Kumar Jha as saying that caste-neutral women voters played a major role in the victory of the alliance, as they have benefited from the social and economic empowerment steps initiated by the government.
It has been observed that offering 50 per cent reservation to women in the panchayat system, 35 per cent reservation in jobs to women, and the Jeevika programme, which is a women's socio-economic empowerment initiative run by the Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society, worked in favor of Janata Dal (United) and the NDA alliance.
When asked why women voted for NDA, a woman remarked, "Why wouldn't we vote for those who gave us ration, water, roads, and bridges?"