Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s much-hyped claim of promoting “naari shakti” (women power), particularly after the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament, hasn't yet got reflected in the BJP’s list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.

Out of the 417 candidates declared by the BJP so far, only 67 are women, accounting for a little over 16 per cent of the total number of people contesting the polls. This is less than half of the 33 per cent reservation in the Lok Sabha and the Assemblies, as promised in the Bill.

The Women’s Reservation Bill, which provides one-third reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and Assemblies was passed by Parliament in 2023. The Bill stipulates that the reservation would be implemented only after a census and delimitation exercise is completed, which pushes it to 2029.

Modi, however, has been taking credit for the passage of the Bill, which remained on the back-burner for decades, and pitching it to woo women voters. He had recently seized upon Rahul Gandhi’s “Modi is a mask who works for a shakti” comment and played to the gallery accusing the INDIA bloc of having declared to “destroy Shakti”, stressing that “mothers and sisters” were “embodiment of Shakti”.

Addressing the rally at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park after the conclusion of his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, Rahul had said Prime Minister Narendra Modi won’t be able to win the Lok Sabha elections without EVMs, ED, CBI and income tax. “Our fight against Modi is not on a personal level. Modi is a mask who works for a shakti (power). He is a shallow man who doesn’t have a 56-inch chest,” Rahul had said.

Though the BJP’s share of women candidates has seen an uptick over the last Lok Sabha polls, it still falls far short of the promised 33 per cent. In 2019, the BJP had fielded 55 women candidates, which accounted for 12.61 per cent, and in 2014, it was just 8.88 per cent.

Though the party has not been able to propel women into mainstream politics, it has shown an upswing in welcoming defectors from the Opposition and fielding them.

Data shows that out of the 417 candidates, nearly 116 are turncoats, accounting for 28 per cent of the total number of people in the poll fray this year. Moreover, most of the defectors are from the Congress. The BJP has been on a poaching spree ever since Modi came to power in 2014, but ahead of this Lok Sabha polls, the move seems to have acquired aggression with rival party leaders embracing the BJP almost daily.