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Journalism of Courage
Across the five poll-bound states, parties have been announcing schemes and making promises, with the common feature across the board being LPG subsidy, seen as a way to swing votes of the crucial demographic of women.
In Congress-ruled Rajasthan, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has promised cooking gas cylinders to more than a crore eligible families. Earlier this year, through “Mehengai Rahat (inflation relief)” camps, the government began providing subsidised cylinders at Rs 500 each.
In Madhya Pradesh, the Congress had promised LPG cylinders at Rs 500 in August. Shortly afterwards, BJP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced that it would offer LPG cylinders for Rs 450.
In Telangana, CM K Chandrasekhar Rao of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi has undercut the Congress’s Rs 500 cylinder with its promise of Rs 400 each cylinders.
In Mizoram, the Congress has promised to bring the cost down per cylinder to Rs 750 for the poorest families, and those with ration cards or headed by women.
Aside from Madhya Pradesh, where it is the ruling party, the BJP has not announced any specific LPG subsidies. However, the BJP government at the Centre has announced two additional LPG subsidies under the Ujjwala Yojana in the last three months. The scheme was initially launched in 2016 to subsidise new LPG connections. Since then, the programme has provided 9.65 crore LPG connections.
In August, the Narendra Modi government cut LPG cylinder prices by Rs 200. In Delhi, for instance, where the market price of a cylinder is Rs 903, the subsidy would bring the cost down to Rs 703. In October, the subsidy amount was raised to Rs 300.
As reported by Liz Mathew, ground reports and surveys by the BJP earlier revealed price rise as the crucial cause for dissatisfaction among women voters.
