Maharashtra Assembly polls: Rajnath Singh accuses Congress of doing little for women

Kamble is contesting against Congress’s Ramesh Bagwe, whom the former had defeated in the 2019 polls by a margin of 5,000 votes.

Talking about the Mahayuti government’s Laadki Bahin scheme, Singh said, “It is not a small thing to deposit Rs 1,500 into the accounts of women whose income is less than Rs 2.5 lakh. The Mahayuti government has done this and as far as I know, we have declared in our manifesto that we will increase it to Rs 2,100.”

Singh also launched an attack on Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi.

“Maharashtra is the janmsthal (bithplace) and karmsthal (workplace) of Babasaheb Ambedkar… Rahul Gandhi is going around holding a red book saying that it is the Constitution which Ambedkar framed. Who knows what the red book actually is…Congress never respected Ambedkar, he was fighting the elections from here (Maharashtra) and the Congress defeated him in an organised way…Why couldn’t the Congress give Ambedkar a Bharat Ratna? It was given to many people. Just because he was from a Scheduled Caste? If anyone, it is Narendra Modi who bestowed the Bharat Ratna on Babasaheb Ambedkar,” said the Union Minister.

Adding that the Ayushman Bharat scheme had been expanded to all people above the age of 70, Singh said people should encourage their elders to register for the scheme so that they can get insurance coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family. He also addressed Muslims and said, “Kaash dono desh (India and Pakistan) ek rahe hote (We wish both the countries would have been one). I want to say to brothers from the minority community, they should also think. One will not find a country like India even if you look for it. The people here have big hearts.”