In The Race To Win The Hearts Of Women, DMK Is Ahead
The DMK alliance had won 159 of the 234 Assembly constituencies in the 2021 elections that saw more women voting for it than men in 130 seats.
Chennai: In the ongoing race to win the hearts of women in Tamil Nadu, the DMK is ahead of the AIADMK despite its recent announcement to give Rs 2000 as assistance to women, which is double the amount paid by the present DMK government under the Kalaignar Mahalir Urimai Thogai scheme that had endeared the ruling party to women voters.
Apart from that scheme, the government over the past over four years has come up with a plethora of programmes that have benefited women in several ways. Now in the run up to the Assembly elections, the DMK, in a bid to attract women voters towards the DMK alliance, is gearing up for a massive campaign listing out the welfare schemes and how they have created women achievers.
The DMK alliance had won 159 of the 234 Assembly constituencies in the 2021 elections that saw more women voting for it than men in 130 seats. Since the Kalignar Urimai Thogai Scheme, launched after the DMK came to power, has increased its popularity among women voter, the party hopes to garner more women votes in the coming election.
While 41 percent of the women in the State are getting the monthly assistance of Rs 1000, of the total 3.2 crore women voters, 85 percent of them are availing the free bus ride scheme that had also increased the DMK’s popularity. Other schemes that had benefited the women are the extension of loans for starting business, hostels for working women at a low rate of rent and special employment schemes for women.
Among the schemes that had indirectly helped women is the free breakfast for primary school children that had prevented 20 lakh students for going hungry in the mornings every day, thus giving relief to the mothers. Pudumani Penn scheme, under which girls going for higher education get a monthly assistance of Rs 1000 each and the free laptop distribution had helped girl students continue their studies.
Another recent programme that had been well received by women though the direct beneficiaries are young girls with no voting rights is the historic free HPV vaccination for girls aged 9 to 14 to prevent cervical cancer. The vaccine, costing Rs 14,000 per dose, would be administered to 3.39 lakh girls and Chief Minister M K Stalin has allocated Rs 39 crore for the implementation of the scheme.
That these pro-women measures had helped the DMK gain popularity among women voters is evident from the statistical data thrown up by the results of the half a score of elections at various levels in the past 10 years. The data confirms a shift in women’s political preference from the days of J Jayalalithaa, when the AIADMK enjoyed a distinct electoral advantage.
The AIADMK’s acceptability among the minorities has also taken a nosedive, apart from women, who are also apprehensive of losing many of the benefits they were getting through the schemes launched by the DMK. So psephologists feel that the DMK alliance would garner 70 to 80 percent of the votes in the Assembly election, ensuring the triumph of the coalition.
