Why is BJP in the shadows on Ladki Bahin promotion?
o offset the drubbing it received in the Lok Sabha election the state government launched the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana
MUMBAI: The subterraneous differences between the three parties that form the Mahayuti are known to surface intermittently. To offset the drubbing it received in the Lok Sabha election the state government launched the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana recently to garner votes from a specific demographic in the forthcoming Assembly election.
However, with the date for disbursement of funds to underprivileged women drawing near (August 17) chief minister Eknath Shinde has not let any opportunity slide to promote the scheme but when his deputy, Ajit Pawar head of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), set out to woo the same electorate, he did so under the banner of Jansanwad Yatra, the outreach programme started last week. On the other hand, the largest ally in the ruling alliance – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – has remained deceptively quiet.
Soon after the initiative, estimated to cost the exchequer ₹46,000 crore annually, was announced in June the Shinde camp put up posters bearing the CM’s picture across the state. So why is the BJP in two minds to join the promotional activities?
A senior BJP leader said the party was not too pleased with the scheme being promoted under the CM’s name. “As a largest party, we have to take a cautious call on how much we should promote the ally. Keeping in mind that Shinde’s strike rate in the Lok Sabha election was better than us, we have to ensure that our ally does not grow at the cost of our success,” he said, adding the three ruling partners have now decided to promote the scheme collectively without giving advantage to at the cost of another.
Another senior party leader said that the party leadership is also wary of its core vote bank getting upset by Shinde’s move. “Women who earn below ₹2.5 lakh annually can get the cash benefit of ₹1500 a month under Ladki Bahin. This covers the lower middle class and sections of Muslim and Scheduled Caste families – not our traditional vote bank. The middle and upper middle classes, our core vote bank, may get upset over it, thinking the scheme was being implemented using their tax money,” he added.
Instead of leaning on sops like the Ladki Bahin scheme BJP has its eyes set on hardcore Hindutva agenda for the Assembly polls, but a section of its leaders is wondering if it would work in the election. The leader, who did not wish to be named, said instead of promoting schemes, the party leadership believes in investing in and implementing projects that would appeal to its core vote bank. He therefore expressed cynicism towards MLAs promoting the Ladaki Bahin scheme locally.
Maharashtra BJP vice president Madhav Bhandari said, “We have been promoting the scheme in the districts by holding meetings and training people on how to implement it. We are not worried about middle class being upset with the lower classes reaping the benefits – our leaders know how to face the voters. As far as the name of the scheme is concerned, it is a pattern adopted for the scheme – it is either called PM or CM Yojana and not named after any particular leader like Jawaharlal Nehru or Rajiv Gandhi.”
Almost as if to smoothen the creases, on Monday, while speaking at a function organised by a Marathi web portal, Shinde said: “Ladki Bahin is a collective decision taken by all of us. It is not about promoting any party or leader in the ruling alliance. It is not for taking credit, but our responsibility towards the people of Maharashtra.”
However, despite calling it a collective effort, the three ruling parties are using different terms for the scheme: Shinde Sena calls it Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, Ajit Pawar’s NCP calls it Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, while BJP terms it Ladki Bahin Yojana.
If they don’t vote for us, we will ask for a moneyback: MLA
Independent MLA, who is associated with the BJP, from Badnera, Amravati, Ravi Rana stirred the pot on Monday saying the Ladaki Bahin sops will be reclaimed if the beneficiaries did not vote for him in the Assembly election. “The amount of ₹1500 will be recovered from the sisters if they do not bless us,” Rana said in a programme where the certificates from the scheme were being distributed to beneficiaries.
This elicited a quick response from Congress leader and leader of opposition Vijay Wadettiwar. He said: “Do the funds distributed belong to Rana or his father or even the CM and the Dy CM to take it back.”
Later, to abort the controversy, Rana clarified that he made the remark in jest and “should not be politicised”. “A brother never takes back money given to his sister. He always helps her. We would not ask for votes by lying like Congress did in Lok Sabha elections,” he said.