3 days ago
Last Updated:May 27, 2025, 13:19 IST
BJP leaders, cadres, women entrepreneurs, self-help group members, Ladli Behnas and women working in various fields are expected to attend PM Narendra Modi's Bhopal rally on May 31
PM Modi will also release a special commemorative postage stamp and coin dedicated to Lokmata Devi Ahilyabai Holkar. (PTI File)
At a time when the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is facing embarrassment with scattered but serious incidents involving party members and leaders, the BJP has decided to go for a quiet image makeover to keep its core vote bank — women — intact.
As in most cases in the BJP, this time, too, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be doing the firefighting.
MODI TO BJP’S RESCUE
On May 31, Modi will address the ‘Mahila Maha Sammelan’ in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal, with an eye on women empowerment and their self-reliance. This women-only event has been organised on the occasion of the 300th birth anniversary of Lokmata Devi Ahilyabai Holkar – a woman ruler in the male-dominated 18th century. BJP sources say the choice of the date was deliberate to send across the message that Modi’s BJP stands with women.
PM Modi will also release a special commemorative postage stamp and coin dedicated to Lokmata Devi Ahilyabai Holkar.
While PM Modi will attend other government events on the day such as inaugurating the Indore Metro Rail Project, the focus will be his rally with women, which not just BJP leaders and cadres but women entrepreneurs, self-help group members, Ladli Behnas, and women working in various fields are expected to attend.
The task to make the women’s rally a success has been given to the 1,000 women workers of the BJP. In this regard, a crucial meeting, where every woman present in the meeting will be given the duty of her unit, will be held in the state BJP headquarters on May 27. The women’s wing of Madhya Pradesh BJP has already held a meeting this Saturday over the issue, discussing the broad contours, where leaders such as state general secretary Bhagwan Sabnani, and minister in the Mohan Yadav Cabinet Krishna Gaur were present.
BJP sources say the PM is likely to underline the ongoing women’s schemes in MP and make a larger point that binds women in India.
THE RECENT INCIDENTS
Recently, a video showing Manoharlal Dhakad in a compromising position on the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway went viral. Amid speculation that Dhakad was associated with the BJP, BJP’s Mandsaur district unit chief Rajesh Dixit clarified that Dhakad had taken the primary membership of the party online, but he was not a leader of the BJP. However, his wife was. Dhakad has been arrested.
In another incident, a woman was seen hugging BJP district president Amar Kishor Kashyap in the now-viral CCTV video of the party’s office in Gonda. However, the 30-year-old married BJP worker associated with the party for nearly three years claimed her “character was tarnished needlessly in a political conspiracy" and that the leader was “like an elder brother" to her. But BJP state general secretary Govind Narayan Shukla issued a notice to Kashyap, demanding a written explanation within seven days, citing indiscipline and damage to the party’s image.
Less than a month ago, senior BJP leader Babban Singh Raghuvanshi was caught in a video purportedly showing him engaging in obscene acts with a dancer at a public event, following which the Uttar Pradesh-based leader was sacked. Raghuvanshi, a former BJP candidate from the Bansdih assembly seat, was seen seated with a woman dancer on his lap. However, Raghuvanshi denied wrongdoing, calling the video doctored.
But the most high-profile incident was from Karnataka, where an FIR was filed against BJP’s sitting MLA Munirathna and his associates after a 40-year-old woman accused them of gang-raping her, urinating on her face, and injecting her with a deadly virus, according to the police. He was elected from Karnataka’s Rajarajeshwari Nagar four times and is the incumbent MLA from the constituency.
With the May 31 Mahila Maha Sammelan in mind, the Madhya Pradesh BJP has asked all mandals to bring 20 women each to the venue.
With the tone and tenor of the event set, all eyes will be on Modi’s message that day, not just for others, but also for within his party.
Location : First Published:News politics PM Modi’s Mahila Sammelan On May 31: BJP Woos Women Amid Munirathna FIR, Leaders’ Viral Clips
