Cash, subsidies, projects: In poll season, every day holds a ‘promise’

Following the 2013 verdict, the EC had updated the MCC guidelines but maintained that “framing of manifestos is the right of political parties” even though some promises could have an “undesirable impact”.

Announcing the poll schedule for the coming elections, starting November 7, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that announcements by parties ahead of polls carried “a tadka of populism”.

In the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had sparked off a heated debate on sops versus welfare, when he had slammed “freebies” by Opposition parties as ‘revdi culture’.

Here’s what parties have promised or governments have rolled out – and PM Modi inaugurated – in poll-bound Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana, in the run-up to tight contests.

Rajasthan; Cong govt

Congress

* Health: Earlier this year, the Ashok Gehlot government introduced the Chiranjeevi Health Scheme providing a cover of Rs 25 lakh per family, further bolstered by its Right to Health Act, promising free healthcare services at all government facilities.

* Inflation: The government has announced further subsidy on cooking gas cylinders, which are now offered by the Centre at Rs 500 each following adjustments to the Ujjwala scheme. Besides, the state provides free electricity up to 200 units for every household and up to 2,000 units for farmers. On Independence Day, Gehlot launched the Free Annapurna Food Packet Scheme to distribute free packets containing pulses, sugar, salt and oil, to more than a crore people through ration shops. Since April, the government has also been running ‘mehengai rahat’ or inflation relief camps at which people can register themselves for as many as 10 welfare schemes at once.

* Phones: In August, the government launched the Indira Gandhi Smartphone Yojana to give free smartphones with three years of free Internet to women. It claimed to have distributed 40 lakh phones in a month.

* Gig workers: In July, the Assembly passed the Gig and Platform Workers’ Welfare Bill, which extended social security to gig workers by setting up a fund to be paid into by companies as a percentage of transaction value of work completed by gig workers. On October 5, the Gehlot government announced a one-time payment of Rs 5,000 for gig workers.

BJP

Its focus is on Central schemes and infrastructure projects. At his October 2 rally in Chittorgarh district, PM Modi stressed the same, saying every poor family will get a pucca house and a tap connection if the BJP is elected.

Modi has recently been touring poll-bound states and inaugurating a range of development projects. Across two visits to Rajasthan earlier this month, the PM inaugurated or laid the foundation stones of projects worth almost Rs 10,000 crore, including for an AIIMS campus and a new airport terminal in Jodhpur, road development projects worth nearly Rs 3,000 crore across the state, the Rs 4,500-crore Mehsana-Bathinda-Gurdaspur gas pipeline, and an LPG plant in Abu Road.

Madhya Pradesh; BJP govt

BJP

* Women: The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government has focused on schemes for women. Its flagship programme, the ‘Ladli Behna Yojana’, now provides Rs 1,250 per month to women between 21 and 60 years of age, whose family income is less than Rs 2.5 lakh a year. Initially, the scheme offered Rs 1,000 with 23 as the minimum age before the provisions were revised. In August, to mark Raksha Bandhan, an additional Rs 250 was provided as a one-time ‘rakhi shagun’. Chouhan said the monthly disbursement will “eventually” be raised to Rs 3,000. In October, the government announced subsidised gas cylinders for women, at Rs 450, with plans to make this “permanent” later.

Recently, Chouhan also announced reserving 35% of some government jobs for women.

Among the projects inaugurated and foundation stones laid by the PM in the state earlier this month were the Rs 11,895-crore Delhi Vadodara Expressway, over Rs 4,000 crore for Jal Jeevan Mission projects to bring drinking water to at least six districts, Rs 4,800-crore in road development, and the Rs 1,750-crore Vijaipur-Auraiya-Phulpur gas pipeline. In September, Modi had laid the foundation stones of projects worth more than Rs 50,000 crore in a single day, including a Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited petrochemical complex in Bina and 10 other industrial projects.

Congress

* Inflation: The Congress has been ahead of the game in MP, with the BJP often seen as playing catch-up. For instance, the subsidised LPG cylinder was announced by the Chouhan government after the Congress promised a cylinder for Rs 500. After the Congress announced free electricity up to 100 units and further 50% discount on the next 100 units, the state government postponed the payment for electricity surcharges. Even the increase in the Ladli Behna scheme payment to Rs 1,500 followed the Congress’s announcement of a Rs 1,500 monthly allowance for women.

* Farmers: The Congress has promised farm loan waiver (first initiated by the short-lived Kamal Nath government), free electricity for agricultural uses, subsidies for farm inputs and the withdrawal of all police cases against farmers who participated in protests against the Centre’s controversial farm Bills in 2020 and 2021.

* OPS: Taking cues from the success of the promise in the recent elections won by the party in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka, the Congress has promised to reinstate the Old Pension Scheme.

* Students: On Thursday, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said that a Congress government would not only provide free education from Classes 1 to 12, but would give allowance of Rs 500 per month to students from Classes 1 to 8, Rs 1,000 per month to those in Classes 9 and 10, and Rs 1,500 to those in Classes 11 and 12 under the ‘Padho-Padhao’ (learn and teach) scheme.

Chhattisgarh; Cong govt

Congress

* Rural issues: The Bhupesh Baghel government has focused its recent schemes on farmers and rural areas, including the Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay and Godhan Nyay Yojana. For farmers, the Bhupesh Baghel-led government is providing input subsidies to 23 lakh farmers growing kharif paddy. It is also acquiring cow-dung from cattle-owners, self-help groups and others. For landless rural families engaged in agriculture and labour, the government is providing Rs 7,000 a year each.

* Housing: At a rally led by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in Bilaspur last month, the state government launched a rural housing scheme, to provide financial assistance to homeless and rural families with kuccha homes. The first instalment of Rs 25,000 was disbursed to more than one lakh families.

* Unemployment allowance: A promise made in 2018, it has now been met, with monthly unemployment allowance of Rs 2,500 for those with family incomes under Rs 2.5 lakh a year. While it had also promised to regularise contractual government employees, it is yet to follow through on this. To counter this, the BJP has promised to include regularisation in its manifesto.

BJP

Aside from regularisation of contractual government employees, the BJP is yet to make any major promises, focusing its campaign efforts on alleged corruption in the incumbent government, including recruitment irregularities in the Public Service Commission.

Earlier this month, the PM inaugurated projects worth over Rs 26,000 crore, including a new National Mineral Development Corporation-operated steel plant in the Bastar district. He also flagged off a new rail connection between Tadoki in Kanker district and Raipur, and upgrades to the Nation Highway 43 near the Chhattisgarh-Jharkhand border.

Telangana; BRS govt

Bharat Rashtra Samithi

* Push for old schemes: The government has been trying to fulfil the promises made in the 2018 polls rather than making many new ones, with the focus in the manifesto for the coming elections set to be farmers and women.

* Housing: Among the major promises it has begun to fulfil in recent months is building two-bedroom homes for poor families in urban areas. In Hyderabad alone, one lakh such homes have been built with distribution slated for this month.

* Loan waiver: Under its existing loan waiver programmes, the government has cleared loans of up to Rs 1 lakh for more than 16 lakh farmers. On the eve of Independence Day this year, it announced a Rs 5,800 crore waiver.

* SC/ST/OBCs: The BRS government’s recently launched schemes include Gruha Lakshmi programme to provide a one-time grant of Rs 3 lakh to women in SC/ST/OBC categories. It has also announced financial grants of Rs 1 lakh for Backward Classes (BCs) and unemployed youth. The government recently expanded the grant for BCs to include Muslims and Christians.

Another expanded programme is the disability pension, raised by Rs 1,000 per month to Rs 4,016.

Congress

* Women, farmers, poor: The party, which has been struggling in the state since it was carved out of Andhra Pradesh in 2014, announced several guarantees at a rally last month including a monthly allowance of Rs 2,500 for women, gas cylinders at Rs 500 each, free transport on state buses for women, Rs 15,000 per year for farmers and Rs 12,000 or agricultural labourers, 200 units a month of free electricity and a monthly pension of Rs 4,000 for the elderly.

* SC/STs: The party has promised 18% reservation for SCs and 12% for STs in government procurement and public work contracts, three new corporations for the uplift of SCs and STs, reservations for SCs and STs in private jobs, and up to Rs 50,000 for SC/ST students upon graduation.

BJP

Among the BJP’s major promises is the establishment of a National Turmeric Board and the Rs 900-crore Sammakka Sarakka Central Tribal University. The turmeric board, a long standing demand of local producers, is likely to be headquartered in Telangana, which is the country’s largest producer of turmeric.

In a state where the BJP has little presence, the PM has inaugurated and laid the foundation stones of projects worth more than Rs 20,000 crore during two visits earlier this month. The major projects include an 800-MW unit in the first phase of the Telangana Super Thermal Power Project, new road and highway projects worth Rs 6,400 crore including to build new sections of the Hyderabad-Visakhapatnam Corridor, the Rs 2,172 crore Hassan-Cherlapalli LPG Pipeline, and a Rs 1,940 crore multi-product petroleum pipeline from Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh to Hyderabad.