India, April 30 -- In March 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi credited women for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s victories in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, and Manipur assembly elections. "Wherever women voters outnumber men, the BJP has a landslide victory," he said.

According to Lokniti-CSDS, an overwhelming majority of Hindu upper-caste women voted for the BJP in the 2022 assembly polls. Successive governments launched special welfare schemes for women, but perhaps lacked a strategy to reap electoral benefits. The BJP began cultivating the women's vote bank after returning to power at the Centre in 2014, through welfare measures such as Ujjwala (LPG connections for Below Poverty Line families), connecting toilets to women's dig...