"The Power of 49": That's how Indian activists have started describing the potential influence of women, who make up just under 50 percent of the population, in the country's ongoing elections. Political parties are courting women for the first time as a bloc, a transformative force that could upend both caste-based voting patterns and the conventional wisdom in New Delhi if they cast their ballots along gender lines.
Unfortunately campaign pledges on women's issues and advertising blitzes targeting their support add up to more hype than reality.
Sure, India's dominant parties — Rahul Gandhi's Indian National Congress party and Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party — increased references to women in their 2014 election manifestos, compared to 2009. Both pledge to push through a long-stymied bill that guarantees a third of Lower House seats to women. (Women currently make up 11 percent of the body.)
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