In Delhi manifesto, BJP may outdo AAP, pledge free bus rides for male students, senior citizens

“The free bus scheme will have no age restrictions for male students. Anyone from a four-year-old kindergarten student to a 40-year-old PhD scholar can avail it just by furnishing their identity card. Currently, the scheme is applicable only to women students and expanding its ambit will help us attract voters,” a senior BJP leader, who is a part of the election manifesto committee, said adding that the scheme will benefit lakhs of students. For senior citizens, the leader said, every citizen above the age of 60 would be eligible for it.

Following the success of the Ladli Behna Yojana in Madhya Pradesh and the Ladki Bahin Yojana in Maharashtra, the BJP is also looking to replicate it in Delhi by proposing a monthly financial aid to women, which would be a figure between Rs 2,500 and Rs 3,000.

Sources said BJP leaders in their campaigns will highlight the success of similar schemes in other party-ruled states while telling voters that the AAP has allegedly failed to implement it in the two states ruled by the party, Delhi and Punjab. “We are already making this a big issue and will only intensify our efforts once the manifesto is announced,” a leader said.

Another BJP leader said that other existing schemes like university special buses, woman-only buses would be renewed to ensure safe transport while the fleet of CNG and electric buses also will be increased.

BJP insiders said the party manifesto or “sankalp patra”, which is likely to be released in the next couple of days, would also guarantee that the existing welfare and subsidy schemes like 200 units of free electricity, free water, and free transport for women will either be continued or be enhanced. For instance, the party is likely to promise up to 300 free units of electricity for households and up to 500 free power units for religious places. Other proposals likely to feature in the manifesto include “jaha jhuggi, waha makaan”, a solar policy akin to the central one, cleaning up of Yamuna within a year, and razing of the “kooda pahads (mountains of garbage)”.

BJP leaders echoed the views of the top party leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who at a recent Delhi rally emphasised that schemes like free electricity, free travel for women in public buses, and healthcare schemes, among others, will continue if the BJP forms the government in Delhi.

Other major parties in the fray, too, have focused on women. The AAP has its Mahila Samman Yojana to provide an assistance of Rs 1,000 per month to women with party chief Arvind Kejriwal promising to increase it to Rs 2,100 per month if his party is voted back to power. The Congress too has announced its Pyari Behna Yojana, under which the party has promised a monthly aid of Rs 2,500 to women.

With regard to other welfare schemes, the AAP has promised free healthcare for all senior citizens, a monthly assistance of Rs 18,000 to priests in temples and granthis in gurudwaras, Ambedkar scholarships for students from the Dalit communities, and free water. The Congress has guaranteed free electricity up to 400 units and free health insurance worth Rs 25 lakh for all residents of Delhi.

The BJP had earlier been critical of its opponents over their “freebies” and had denounced the “revdi culture”. However, the party is now set to propose a slew of welfare schemes keeping in view the huge electoral significance of Delhi’s underprivileged and downtrodden, who seem to favour AAP because of its schemes among other things.