Cong attacks Maha govt for ‘cheating’ women under Ladki Bahin scheme

The Congress on Tuesday accused Maharashtra’s BJP-led Mahayuti government of “cheating” millions of women under the Ladki Bahin Yojana, citing a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report that found around 6

The Congress on Tuesday accused Maharashtra’s BJP-led Mahayuti government of “cheating” millions of women under the Ladki Bahin Yojana, citing a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report that found around 6.2 million beneficiaries dropped from the flagship welfare scheme. Party spokesperson Atul Londhe Patil made the charge at a press briefing at the All India Congress Committee headquarters here.

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“Those who cheated god have also cheated our sisters. They took away the ladki bahin’s rights just as they took away the offerings meant for Lord Ram,” Londhe Patil said, referring to allegations of temple fund misuse that the party has raised in the past against the ruling alliance.

The Ladki Bahin Yojana, Maharashtra’s version of the Ladli Behna scheme, was launched in June 2024 by the Mahayuti government, an alliance of the Shiv Sena faction led by then chief minister Eknath Shinde, the BJP and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party. The scheme promised a monthly payout of ₹1,500 to eligible women and became a central plank of the alliance’s campaign ahead of the state assembly election, which was moved from October to November 2024. Shinde and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis also promised to raise the amount to ₹2,100 and add ₹100 more if voted back to power.

“We are told 6.2 million eligible women have been removed, most of them after an e-KYC exercise that came only after the votes were counted,” Londhe Patil said. “The moment the election was won, the sisters were shown the door.”

He said the CAG findings showed the removals were carried out mostly after applicants failed an electronic Know Your Customer, or e-KYC, verification process introduced after the election. Some women, he said, were struck off for being above 65 years of age despite their Aadhaar cards carrying valid birth records.

“Did the Aadhaar card not carry a date of birth when you first enrolled her? Why is her age suddenly a problem today?” Londhe Patil asked, alleging that the eligibility criteria were being applied selectively to push women out rather than to register new applicants.

He also cited the report to claim a gap between funds sanctioned and funds spent under the scheme, running into thousands of crore of rupees, and said the state government offered no explanation on record for the mismatch. “This is only the tip of the iceberg,” he said, adding that departmental discussions suggested the actual number of women likely to be removed from the scheme could cross half the total beneficiary base.

The Congress leader said the online application form for the scheme required applicants to solve a captcha, a step he said was unrealistic for domestic workers and daily wage earners who form the bulk of the beneficiaries. “This form has to be filled by a woman who cleans someone else’s house for a living. How is she supposed to know if a letter is upper case or lower case?” he said. He also said the scheme, unlike older welfare programmes such as the Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana, has no dedicated grievance redressal office where an aggrieved woman can appeal her removal.

The party’s core demand, Londhe Patil said, is that the state government re-register all 6.2 million women found eligible but removed from the rolls, and release their pending monthly payouts. “Register these women first, then punish those who cheated them,” he said, also demanding that the government identify and act against the officials and political leadership responsible for ordering the removals. “Why do you always catch the small fish? Catch the one who gave the order,” he said.

The Ladki Bahin Yojana was widely credited with helping the Mahayuti alliance secure a large majority in the November 2024 Maharashtra assembly election, with the BJP emerging as the single largest party. The scheme has since faced questions over its fiscal sustainability, with officials in the state finance department flagging concerns about the burden on the exchequer even before it was rolled out.

The BJP-led state government has not directly responded to Londhe Patil’s press conference. Its Women and Child Development Minister, Aditi Tatkare, has previously defended the verification drive behind the deletions, saying the e-KYC exercise could not begin earlier because of the 2024 assembly election and the model code of conduct, and that beneficiaries were given repeated warnings and a deadline extended till December 31, 2025 to complete the process. “It is not that the government removed them,” she has said, adding that eligible women continued receiving benefits until the e-KYC procedure lapsed.

Separately, government records reviewed by other media outlets show the total number of women removed from the scheme, at more than 9.2 million, is higher than the 6.2 million figure cited by Londhe Patil, which corresponds only to deletions for e-KYC non-compliance. The remaining removals were attributed to family income above the eligibility ceiling, government employment in the household, or benefits already drawn under other welfare schemes. Active beneficiaries have fallen from about 24.3 million to just over 15 million since the verification drive began in September 2025.

The 6.2 million figure cited by Londhe Patil is broadly consistent with separate media reports on the scheme’s e-KYC deletions, though the full CAG report has not been made public and its other specific findings, including the fund gap he cited, could not be independently verified.