BJP Launches Women Outreach Drive, Names it After Malwa Queen Ahilyabai Holkar
As the Modi government and the ruling BJP marked the 300th birth anniversary of the Maratha queen on May 31, the BJP used the occasion to launch the drive to strengthen its support among the women
New Delhi: In a bid to woo the women voters and identify "future leaders" for the party, the BJP is running a nationwide drive in the name of the 18th-century Malwa queen Ahilyabai Holkar. Hailed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the "great guardian of India's heritage", the BJP has turned the legacy of Ahilyabai Holkar into a massive outreach drive to win over the saffron party’s and Mr Modi’s one of the strongest support bases, the “nari shakti”.
As the Modi government and the ruling BJP marked the 300th birth anniversary of the Maratha queen on May 31, the BJP used the occasion to launch the drive to strengthen its support among the women. The Modi government has passed the Nari Shakti Vandan Act, which guarantees 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and state Assemblies, though it is yet to be implemented. BJP leaders engaged with the outreach drive claim it is a “ground movement” through which the party leadership is trying to identify “new and credible” leadership both for the organisation and in local bodies, Assemblies and also Parliament through this drive.
Ahilyabai Holkar is revered across the country for her contribution towards women's empowerment, cultural heritage and the extensive restoration and construction of numerous temples across India. She also belonged to the OBC community, a numerically dominant votebank in the country, which has been backing the BJP and Mr Modi.
As part of the outreach drive, the BJP has been organising events, workshops, seminars, women intellectual meets, and group meetings of women at the grassroots and at the district levels to pick future leaders.
The saffron party leadership is also aiming to find women leaders from the northeastern and southern parts of the country through outreach activities. The party recently organised one such event in Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu. The temple town is among the list of places across India where Ahilyabai Holkar got several temples renovated.
Likewise, several workshops have been organised in northeastern states like Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Assam, among others.
Invoking Ahilyabai Holkar, who the BJP hails as a “symbol of cultural nationalism and nari shakti”, the party is carrying out a large-scale drive hoping to pick women leaders, administrators and orators.