Priyanka's Second Bihar Campaign Leg On September 28 Targets Women Voters
During her visit, Priyanka is likely to focus on the Rs 2,500 per month allowance, likely to be announced by Congress, for women in Bihar.
Published : September 14, 2025 at 6:43 PM IST
|Updated : September 14, 2025 at 6:49 PM IST
New Delhi: Congress’s star campaigner Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is all set to woo the women voters in poll-bound Bihar on September 28 in an attempt to boost the prospects of her party as well as the INDIA bloc.
According to party insiders, Priyanka’s visit will serve two purposes. First, it will help the Congress bring the issues related to women, who comprise half the state’s electorate, to the fore. Second, the event will provide the much-needed push to the Congress after Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s Voter Adhikar Yatra, which flagged the issue of vote theft.
Priyanka had attended Rahul’s yatra on August 26 and 27, and her presence came good for the Congress in Bihar, said party insiders, adding that the September 28 visit is being planned to woo women voters in the state.
“Her presence will be a big boost to the party. Plans are afoot for the coming visit,” AICC secretary in charge of Bihar, Sushil Pasi, told ETV Bharat.
During her visit, Priyanka is likely to focus on the Rs 2,500 per month allowance for women that the INDIA bloc will promise for the female voters, besides flagging the need to improve education, health care and safety for women in the backwards state.
“The women’s allowance scheme has been popular with the women voters. Our teams have got a good response across the state,” Congress legislative party leader Shakeel Ahmed Khan told ETV Bharat.
Besides the star campaigner appeal of Priyanka Gandhi, the Congress managers are also banking on the fact that women voters in Bihar have been outnumbering male voters in casting their votes during the past assembly elections.
According to party insiders, in the 2020 assembly elections, the share of male voters was 54 per cent while that of women voters was 60 per cent. Similarly, in the 2015 assembly elections, women voters were more than male voters in around 200 out of 243 seats.
“The women voters come out to exercise their right more than men. This is because a large number of male voters work outside the state and may miss the polling. This also shows that women have more stakes in the democratic process in the state. Around 1 crore forms have been filled out for the women’s allowance scheme. But that does not mean that the scheme would be limited only to those who sign up now. Once the INDIA bloc government is in place, the scheme would be available to all women in the state,” said Khan.
Congress insiders said that although the September 28 event is a party show, efforts are on to involve the INDIA bloc allies in Priyanka Gandhi’s events to broaden the opposition’s appeal.
The party managers want to ensure that the September 28 event does not look like a women-only conclave, as it may disappoint the general voters who also want to listen to the Congress’s star campaigner. Accordingly, a women’s rights-based event in an indoor setting and a public rally may be organised during Priyanka’s visit, the insiders said.
To counter the ruling NDA, which recently started a scheme to provide Rs 10000 financial help to women desirous of setting up a small business, the INDIA bloc is also planning to announce a plan to offer up to Rs 2 lakh to persons who are keen to start some trade activity. Besides, the opposition may also announce tablets or laptops for all students from classes 8 to 12.
After Rahul’s yatra, which created a buzz around the controversial summary intensive revision or SIR that led to the removal of over 65 lakh voters in Bihar, the state unit has been asked to focus on spreading the party’s social welfare agenda through block-level outreach programmes. RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav, who had accompanied Rahul Gandhi through the Voter Adhikar Yatra, will embark on a separate march to cover the unvisited areas of the state over the coming days.
Accordingly, Priyanka, who had slammed the saffron party over the SIR, is likely to further strengthen her attack on the ruling NDA over vote theft issues and the problems being faced by the voters in the state.
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