The Wire Staff 
Mumbai: The Mahavikas Aghadi and the Bhartiya Janata Party seem to be competing against each other in trying to woo the women voters in Maharashtra.
Just 10 days before the Maharashtra state goes to poll, the Bhartiya Janata Party has unveiled its 24-point manifesto, or Sankalp Patra as the party calls it, and has promised Rs 2,100 instead of the existing Rs 1,500 under the Mahayuti government’s Ladki Bahin Scheme in the state.
The Mahavikas Aghadi (MVA), on the other hand, has promised Rs 3,000 for women under its “Mahalaxmi Scheme”.
While the Ladki Bahini scheme, modelled on the successful Ladli Behna programme in Madhya Pradesh, was launched just a few months before the elections, the Mahalaxmi is based on the Congress’s successful scheme from Karnataka. In addition to Rs 3,000, the MVA manifesto also promises free bus rides to women and girls.
Health, period leaves, LPG
In a joint manifesto, the MVA has made 48 promises impacting the “socio-economic” landscape of Maharashtra, should the alliance come to power after the upcoming assembly election. The MVA manifesto has once again laid stress on the party’s resolve to carry out a caste census – a contentious issue that dominated the general elections too.
The manifesto borrows from the schemes implemented in the neighbouring Karnataka, where many welfare measures were announced and later implemented after the Congress came to power in the state. Similarly, the manifesto also promises a health insurance scheme of Rs 25 lakhs – on the lines of what was started by Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan. Free medicines to the needy has also been promised.
The MVA manifesto also promises six cooking gas cylinders per year for women consumers at a subsidised rate of Rs 500, along with free cervical cancer vaccines for girls aged nine to 16 years, and two optional days of leave for women per month during their menstrual cycle.
Leaders of the MVA – of the Congress, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Bal Thackeray) and Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Chandra Pawar), Samajwadi Party and Aam Aadmi Party – have collectively also promised other aid that includes Rs 4,000 as a monthly stipend for youth seeking jobs and an amount of Rs 50,000 each to farmers who repay their loans on time.
“We have envisioned Maharashtra’s progress built on five core pillars – agriculture and rural development, industry and employment, urban and city development, environment, and public welfare,” said Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, while releasing the manifesto in Mumbai.
Water and jobs
The BJP, on the other hand, has promised to make Maharashtra “drought-free” in the next five years. A large part of the state’s Vidarbha and Marathwada region and few other rain-shadow regions in western Maharashtra have been reeling under drought for many years. The BJP has promised to redirect 167 thousand million cubic feet of water flowing in the western rivers to the drought-prone areas of Marathwada and North Maharashtra via the Godavari basin. To address the issue of water scarcity in Vidarbha region, the BJP manifesto claims that the water from the Wainganga river will be utilised. Such promises are not new to voters of Maharashtra.
Repeating its past promises of creating jobs, the BJP has once again promised to create “one crore jobs” in the next five years. The issue of unemployment has fuelled resentment, especially among the youth in the state.
BJP leader and state deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis called the manifesto a roadmap for making a “Viksit Maharashtra for Viksit Bharat”. In the manifesto, the BJP has also said efforts will be made to honour anti-caste icons Mahatma Jotiba Phule and Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule, and Hindutva idol V.D. Savarkar with the Bharat Ratna award.