Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Women aced voter turnout in Assam, Kerala and Puducherry on Thursday, not only recording their highest-ever polling percentage but also surpassing the male voter turnout in the two states and the Union territory. A whopping 91.4% of the female electorate in Puducherry, 86.5% in Assam and 81.2% in Kerala voted. In comparison, the male voter turnout was 88.1% in Puducherry, 85.3% in Assam and 75.1% in Kerala. The gender turnout gap was the widest in Kerala, at nearly 6 percentage points, as against 3.2 percentage points in Puducherry and just 1.1 percentage points in Assam. The enthusiastic participation by women electors pushed up the overall polling percentage across the three states/UT. Most political parties have been targeting women electors in their manifesto promises. In Kerala, LDF has promised to raise women’s participation in the workforce to 50%, while UDF has offered women free travel in state buses.
