"Anti-women" Opposition versus BJP welfare schemes -- this was Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pitch to women in Varanasi today. And his special request to them was to ensure maximum possible voting. "Collect 25-30 women and go to the polling stations beating drums, clanging thalis, singing songs. If we can hold 20-25 such processions at each booth before 10 am, the voting figures will shoot up," he told the massive gathering of women this evening.
The Prime Minister had gone campaigning today in his constituency, which is voting in the last phase on June 1. At the "Nari Shakti Sammelan", he launched a stinging attack on the opposition Congress and Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party, which are contesting the election as allies.
The Congress, the Prime Minister said, is against reservation, its ally, the Samajwadi Party is lax about law and order.
"If something happens, then SP will say 'boys can make mistakes'. Let the boys 'make mistakes' now, Yogi-ji (Yogi Adityanath) would know how to deal with them," he said, recalling the 2014 shocker from the SP's late patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Mulayam Singh Yadav had sparked outrage with his comment questioning the death sentence to three men convicted for two gang-rapes in Mumbai. "Should rape cases be punished with hanging? They are boys, they make mistakes," he had said.
"The INDI Alliance's mentality has always been anti-women. They opposed women's reservation. Wherever their government comes to power, it becomes difficult for women to live. The people of Banaras are familiar with the Jungle Raj in UP and Bihar. It was difficult for our sisters and daughters to step out of the house. Daughters had to leave their studies and sit at home due to safety concerns," he said.
His big appeal to the women was through the party's social welfare schemes, which he said, was saving every family so much money.
Housing, health, free food, and subsidised cooking gas – he presented an itemised list of how much a family was saving under each head. He reminded them of the toilets built in every house, free bank accounts and even the free cataract operations for 3 lakh people of the constituency that he had got done as an MP.
In an emotive appeal, he said, "For the first time in the past 10 years, women have come to the forefront of the government's policies and decisions. Although it hasn't been discussed much, it is a major factor in India's success story. Tell me, if the home cannot be run without you, how can the country be run without you? This was something that the governments did not understand for 60 years".