2024 Lok Sabha polls: Why BJP ignored ‘Nari Shakti’ within its ranks in Gujarat

In the parliamentary elections of 2019, two women leaders of BJP made news for winning their seats by record margins. Vadodara’s Ranjanben Bhatt had won her seat by 5.89 lakh votes, surpassing even Amit Shah’s winning margin of 5.57 votes from the Gandhinagar seat, while MP Darshana Jardosh won Surat by a margin of 5.48 lakh. Both the women MPs were hailed as stars of 2019 polls as their winning margins were one of the highest in the country.

Cut to 2024 Lok Sabha polls, both Bhatt and Jardosh have found no place as party’s candidates. While Jardosh was one of the five sitting woman parliamentarians that the BJP dropped from its candidate list this term, Bhatt made it to the list only to be replaced later.

Missing in action

A Class 12 passout, LIC agent Ranjan Bhatt stepped into the world of politics as a rebel candidate in Vadodara civic polls when BJP refused to give her a ticket in the year 2000. She won the polls and caught the attention of the ruling party. Subsequently, she contested the civic poll in 2013 as a BJP candidate and won again. Since then she has seen a meteoric rise in the party.

Bhatt was the deputy mayor of Vadodara Municipal when she was fielded in 2014 for the Vadodara Lok Sabha bypoll after Prime Minister Narendra Modi vacated the seat in favour of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. BJP choosing Bhatt from the seat had come as a surprise as the multiple heavy weight leaders of the party were vying for the seat, and Bhatt was not a big name in the political circle of Gujarat in 2014.

However, she comfortably won the by poll with 3.29 lakh votes, defeating Narendra Ravat of the Congress. Noticeably, Modi an extremely popular leader by then, had won the seat by a margin of 5.70 lakh votes. But her win was largely credited to Modi’s popularity in the ‘VIP seat’.

As Bhatt became a parliamentarian, she went on to be member of the Consultative Committee, Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation. Bhatt was also a member of the Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare and the Standing Committee on Industry from 2014 to 2016.

She was re-elected as Vadodara MP in the 2019 and made headlines again with her victory margin of more than 5 lakh votes. Later, she was appointed a member of the Standing Committee on Indian Railways.

In the BJP’s first list for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Bhatt was made a candidate again from Vadodara again. But even as Bhatt was preparing for her hattrick win from the seat, she was dropped as a candidate after an internal opposition against her candidature.

Some local BJP leaders reportedly expressed their displeasure over Bhatt’s nomination. BJP national women’s wing vice president Jyotiben Pandya resigned from the party and all posts after Bhatt’s name was announced as a candidate for the third time from Vadodara.

Since then, the 62-year-old firebrand woman leader has faded into oblivion and not made any many public appearances or campaigned for BJP candidate Hemang Joshi who replaced her. Bhatt also refused to talk on the issue when contacted.

A dedicated worker

Unlike Bhatt, Surat MP Darshana Jardosh rose gradually through the ranks within the BJP over the past two decades. At a time when the party hardly had any women leaders, Jardosh earned one position at a time and was the first woman leader to do so before within the BJP in Gujarat. She started her political career in 1980 as the first female vice president of the BJP ward committee in Surat. In 1987, she won the cooperative polls and became first female director of Surat Mahila Nagrik Sahakari Bank.

She went on to be the executive member and then vice president of BJP Mahila Morcha from 1992 to 1996. Jardosh then became the president of BJP Mahila Morcha in 1999.

In the year 2000, she won the civic polls to become a corporator in Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC). She dabbled in cooperative and civic polls until 2009 when she was declared a candidate for Lok Sabha polls from Surat seat. She took over the seat from BJP veteran leader and heavy wight LK Advani and won.

She was re-elected in 2014 and won Lok Sabha elections by record vote share of 75.79 per cent – a margin of 5,33,190 lakh votes. Jardosh’s winning margin is the highest lead by any woman MP in Indian electoral history after Indira Gandhi and was the fourth highest lead in the 2014 elections.

In 2019, Jardosh won again by a margin of over 5 lakh votes. However, for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, she was dropped and replaced by Mukesh Dalal.

Jardosh, and OBC leader had been campaigning for Dalal who recently won the seat after all candidates withdrew their candidature.

“I have followed the party’s command. I have been a BJP worker and will always be one. I will always be ready for any role the party gives me,” said Jardosh.

A tale of neglect

Noticeably, the BJP has dropped 12 sitting MPs in its candidate list for 2024 polls that came out earlier March. Amongst them, five are women leaders. Amongst those who did not find a place as candidates for the 2024 polls are Mehsana MP Shardaben Patel, Gitaben Rathwa, MP of Chhota Udepur, and Bhavnagar MP Bharti Shiyal.

Bharati Shiyal is also a former MLA from Talaja, a constituency in Bhavnagar. “The party leadership has assured me of a meeting post-election to discuss a position within the party,” she said.

“After being dropped from the Lok Sabha poll fray, Shiyal is hopeful of getting party positions, but the party may not have much to offer her,” says a BJP member from Gandhinagar on condition of anonymity.

Chhota Udepur MP Gitaben Rathwa was a five-term member of the district panchayat who defeated veteran Congress MLA Jayanti Rathwa from the seat in 2019. In 2024, she was dropped to make way for a new face, Jashubhai Rathwa, a former district chief and vice president of the BJP’s ST Morcha.

Amongst the 14 MPs who were repeated in 2024, only one is a woman MP – two time sitting MP Poonamben Maadam, who has been winning from Jamnagar since 2014.

It’s worth noting that Gujarat has approximately 2.39 crore women voters, constituting around 50 per cent of the total registered voters.

Noticeably, since 1962, Gujarat has sent only 26 women MPs to Parliament. In the year 2019, Gujarat saw the highest number of women parliamentarians with BJP fielding six and Congress one candidate respectively. However, there has been no woman MP who has been a minister from Gujarat.

“Having a say at the Centre is a far-fetched dream for women MPs. In fact, female Lok Sabha MPs from Gujarat have little say in the party and wield no power in the state. So far, there has been no female central ministers from Gujarat either, except Anandiben Patel, who had been the CM of Gujarat. However, she couldn't complete her term and was replaced by Vijay Rupani after Patel agitation in 2016,” says Manjula Pradeep, a women’s rights activist from Gujarat.

In the 2024 polls, there are three women candidates in the poll fray. Apart from BJP’s Jamnagar candidate Poonamben Madam, both Congress and BJP have fielded female candidates from Banaskantha.

Rekhaben Chaudhary is the BJP candidate from Banaskantha. Chaudhary is a doctorate in mathematics and professor in the local engineering college for past 20 years and belongs to the family of milk traders. Her grandfather Galbabhai Chaudhary found Banas diary in Banaskantha.

Interestingly, the introduction of Rekhaben Chaudhary released by the BJP has more text dedicated to her husband’s political career who is the district general secretary of Morbi.

“Dr. Chaudhary is the wife of Dr. Hitesh Chaudhary who is in BJP’s Morbi district incharge. Dr. Hiteshbhai was previously Kutch district’s in-charge for the party, Banaskantha district BJP general secretary, and three-term office bearer of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha in Gujarat at the State level. Dr. Hitesh Chaudhary had been a Senate and Syndicate member at Gujarat University in the past. Dr. Chaudhary is Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) cadre,” the pamphlet released by BJP reads.

“I am Modi saheb’s candidate under whose leadership the Ram Temple was constructed, fulfilling the dreams of lakhs of people. My opponent is Rahul Gandhi's candidate. She (Geniben Thakor of Congress) is contesting on the basis of caste, whereas I am here to serve people,” said the BJP candidate.

“The only thing that matters to us and the party is winning. We have always worked as a team. Anything else doesn’t matter,” added Chaudhary who is debuting in parliamentary poll in 2024.

“Although the BJP has been advocating the need to reserve 33 per cent of seats in Parliament and Legislative Assemblies for women, the party leaders have stated that cite winnability as the main reason for not fielding more women for election. However, that excuse does not hold much water for Gujarat as all female contestants fielded by the BJP since 2009 have won Lok Sabha elections in the state,” says Hemaang Desai, sociology professor and political analyst based in Gujarat.

“The other large party, the opposition — Congress, has also a bad record in fielding female candidates. The party had first fielded women candidates 1962 general election. Congress had fielded two candidates in 1962 and since then the party has never fielded more than two candidates in any subsequent Lok Sabha elections from Gujarat. In fact, in 2014, the Congress fielded just one woman, Prabha Taviad, who was the sitting MP from the reserved ST constituency of Dahod, but she lost the seat to BJP,” he added.

Noticeably, an analysis of the performance of Gujarat’s parliamentarians reveals that women parliamentarians were better performers than their male colleagues this term.

Among the top three performers from Gujarat are Mehsana MP Jayshree Patel and Surat MP Darshana Jardosh.

Patel has registered the highest parliamentary attendance of 98 percent. She has participated in 132 debates, asked 397 questions, and moved six private members’ bills. While Jardosh has recorded 94 percent attendance. She has participated in 75 debates, asked 373 questions, and moved 11 private members’ bills.