Modi courted female votes in India Was the election strategy successful?

Prior to the nation's historic national election, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave an address at a rally in the eastern state of West Bengal to an exclusively female audience on International Women's Day.Modi claimed that his defense against criticism of his government's ten-year rule came from women voters. His remarks aligned with the focused outreach that Prime Minister Modi and his administration have made to women, who make up 49% of the nation's population.The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has positioned itself under Modi as a champion of Indian women's issues, from the provision of cooking gas connections to assurances of increased safety for women. However, several of the party's programs have come under fire for being more hype than substance.Additionally, a number of polls conducted prior to the Indian election revealed that, in contrast to the opposition, the BJP had more support from women than from men.

However, a complicated image of how women actually voted in 2024 is starting to emerge, a week after the results of the Indian elections became evident. The BJP needed the support of coalition partners to create the government that was sworn in on Sunday after failing to secure a majority. Additionally, the findings deviate with the recent trend of an increase in the number of elected women lawmakers.Al Jazeera analyzes the BJP's tactics, the performance of its female candidates, the voting patterns of women, and the status of representation in the upcoming Indian parliament.