Why a populist scheme for women is Mahayuti’s best bet for Assembly polls

Maharashtra has 9.4 crore voters, and of these, 4.9 crore are men and 4.5 crore women. The Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana aims to transfer Rs 1,500 into the bank accounts of eligible women in the age group of 18 to 65 years every month. Only women whose family income is below Rs 2.5 lakh and have no member paying income tax are eligible for the scheme.

The scheme, thus, is likely to benefit 2.5 crore women, a sizable chunk of the state’s voting population. If the Mahayuti succeeds in getting all the beneficiaries enrolled before the Assembly polls, it would have targeted 56 per cent of its women voters – possibly the biggest reason why the alliance did not want polls in September or October.

“Over the years, the women vote bank in Maharashtra is at par with the male vote bank. A scheme for women, the Mahayuti believes, would help defuse the polarisation between Marathas and OBCs across Maharashtra…mainly because women beneficiaries are across castes, communities and religions,” a political strategist in the state said.

An aggressive push

Since its August 17th launch, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar are leaving no stone unturned to aggressively campaign for the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana. The Mahayuti leaders held rallies across the state last week, ahead of Raksha Bandhan on Monday, with every event ending with women tying a rakhi and acknowledging their gratitude for the scheme. The leaders then displayed the rakhis that covered almost one-third of their hands.

The three leaders have also been engaged in a game of one-upmanship by trying to reap the benefits of the publicity being generated to consolidate their own electoral base.

On Monday, Shinde chose to sit on a low podium to interact with women on the scheme instead of sitting in a chair that would have placed him above the crowd, along with the other leaders. On his part, Fadnavis stepped away from his security to mingle with the crowd at every public function. Meanwhile, Ajit Pawar was quick to claim credit for the scheme, which is being criticised by the Opposition as being unsustainable. “Making the impossible possible is my trait. That is my identity,” the NCP leader said, rubbishing the Opposition’s apprehensions over the scheme’s financial feasibility.

The Mahayuti believes that this scheme has the potential to tilt the electoral scales in Maharashtra. As the women beneficiaries of the scheme belong to financially disadvantaged segments, the ruling parties feel it will convey the message that the government is serving the poor. This, the alliance feels, is not something that the Opposition can afford to criticise.

With caste polarisation adversely affecting its prospects in the Lok Sabha elections – the Mahayuti won just 17 out of 48 seats in the state and the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi won 30 seats – the ruling alliance is also hoping the women voters will bridge the 2 lakh vote deficit caused by the Marathas vs Other Backward Class (OBC) divide.

With top BJP leaders in the state finding themselves at a crossroads after the Lok Sabha results, the party decided to replicate a scheme that worked for it in Madhya Pradesh – former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s Mukhyamantri Ladli Behna Yojana.

A financial burden?

Currently, every beneficiary of the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana will get Rs 18,000 a year. At a time when Maharashtra is under severe financial strain – as per the Economic Survey 2023-24, the state’s debt has crossed Rs 7 lakh crore – the scheme would require a budget of Rs 46,000 crore, something that the Opposition has been quick to point out.

The Mahayuti, however, is undeterred and has promised to continue the scheme with an increased stipend if the alliance is voted to power. Shinde, in fact, has promised to hike the monthly stipend gradually to Rs 3,000 in the future.

The Opposition has been critical but cautious. “The motive is crystal clear. It is limited to the elections,” state Congress president Nana Patole said.

CM Shinde denied the allegation. “This is not a one-time scheme. It is here to stay forever. It is necessary to empower and make women self-reliant,” Shinde said.

Fadnavis too has been quick to point out how women’s upliftment is integral to the alliance. “Those availing this scheme know how much Rs 1,500 per month means to them and their families,” he said.

Wooing women

The trend of wooing the women voters by extending sops goes beyond Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Cutting across ideologies, parties in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, Karnataka, Telangana, etc. have frequently doled out sops to reach out to women voters.

In fact, Maharashtra had brought out a comprehensive pro-women policy in 1994. It was then chief minister Sharad Pawar who had introduced bold reforms to bring about a holistic transformation in the lives of women. From 33 per cent reservation in local bodies to equal rights in property, the state government had taken several pro-women decisions.

From 1994 to 2019, successive governments in the state had formulated several pro-women policies. Nevertheless, disparity in wages among workers, inadequate representation in Parliament and Assembly, etc. are issues that are yet to be addressed.