Commentary
Woman at BJP's Dehradun rally (Twitter)
In 2019, this author wrote in detail about how PM Modi connected with women voters in the state with work-led and emotion-led moves before and after polls. The focus and efforts of Narendra Modi's 'double engine' in
order to 'empower' women of Uttarakhand and connect with them have
represented a deviation in politics in the hill state.
Even so, it is time Narendra Modi the prime minister and Modi the
leader ignited a new change in the politics of the hill state which is largely male-dominated.
If the BJP goes for an all out women-driven, women-centric approach to its 2022 campaign, taking the Dehradun rally as the point of initiation, it would begin the process for a change that Uttarakhand really requires from the largest party and its opponents.
Four: The women in the upper regions of Uttarakhand lead hard and
strenuous lives. Health facilities, infrastructure, livelihoods and education are and will remain areas that need more work from the political parties that rule the state in the upper districts in particular. Man-animal conflicts and uninhabited villages, outmigration, among other issues continue to challenge women.
With Modi at the helm, women leaders addressing these issues will have an impact that will be hard to outdo.
PM Modi has said that the next decade will be the decade of Uttarakhand. With women leading the largest party's show at the state-engine level, Modi himself will see the difference aiming for the decade would bring.
The party mahila morcha and the Mahila Mangal Dals duet in Uttarakhand can transform and speed up collaboration for the welfare and empowerment of women in the state.
It would be a bit much to expect the BJP to come up with a woman
candidate as the leading force in the state. A party that has made amends to its work and leadership, for which 2021 will be remembered, could very well think of whether the situation could have been better and different had it (honed and shaped) women leaders that would take feisty hold of responsibility in the top rung.
The change may not come immediately for 2022, but the tone can be set now, in Modi's own voice.Voters in the state and the media have seen the distinct gesture from
Modi when he patted CM Pushkar Singh Dhami's back at the Dehradun
rally. From Trivendra Singh Rawat to Teerath Singh Rawat to now Dhami,
the BJP has been on a course of making amends.
The latest: Dhami himself made the much-awaited decision of taking back the Char Dham Devasthanam Management Board Bill in November. The state leaders are aware of the weight Modi's emotional appeal to the women holds. There is no chance they would or must squander it.