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by IANS |
New Delhi, Jan 7 (IANS) The Election Commission (EC) announced the dates for the Delhi Assembly elections on Tuesday, setting the stage for a high-voltage tri-cornered contest between the ruling AAP and Opposition BJP and the Congress on February 5.
The announcement of the poll dates will now intensify campaigning and the poll blitzkrieg by the top leaders of respective parties, as they seek to win public support.
The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP is eyeing its third-consecutive term, the BJP is mounting an aggressive campaign for its comeback while the Congress is also stepping up its offensive against the ruling AAP, the party which it allied with in the recent Lok Sabha polls.
Amid the intensifying political battle, it’s the women voters who have taken the centre stage as they are being wooed by all the leading parties with poll sops.
AAP National Convenor Kejriwal announced the 'Mahila Samman Yojana', last month, promising financial assistance of Rs 1,000 per month to women in the national Capital, which he said would be raised to Rs 2,100 if his party returns to power.
The Congress has announced its ‘Pyari Didi Yojana’ promising a monthly aid of Rs 2,100.
Reports suggest that the BJP has also firmed up its plan to announce a similar monetary assistance plan with Rs 2,500 per month.
Some reports claim that it was originally BJP’s 'idea' to introduce monthly aid for women in the capital, which apparently got ‘leaked’ and the ruling AAP lost no time in taking the lead by launching the 'Mahila Samman Yojana'.
In fact, women voters have been at the centre of elections in recent times and the parties who banked on their support also saw their fortunes climbing.
Some states, where elections revolved around women issues and their financial empowerment offer good insight into this trend.
In the Madhya Pradesh Assembly election 2023, the 'Ladli Behna Yojana' turned out to be a ‘gamechanger’ for the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government as it was this scheme which brought him back to power despite three terms of anti-incumbency.
The scheme provided a monthly financial aid of Rs 1,250 to women aged between 23 and 60 years. The BJP’s performance in the Assembly elections left the pollsters and analysts baffled as it bettered its own tally from 2018. It won 163 out of 230 seats, as compared to 110 in the 2018 polls.
Jharkhand and Maharashtra, the two states which underwent elections in the recent past saw the women-centered schemes dominating the electoral discourse as well as the party’s poll planks.
In Jharkhand, the Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) government faced strong anti-incumbency along with various alleged corruption charges.
The BJP made JMM-sponsored graft, a big issue in the elections in its bid to oust the incumbent regime. Political watchers believe that the JMM’s monetary scheme for women turned out to be its saviour in the hard-fought poll battle and saw the JMM breaking the jinx by returning to power for the second-consecutive term.
The Hemant Soren government in August 2023, promised Rs 1,000-monthly aid to women aged between 18 and 50 falling under the Antyodaya category. In the heat of the poll campaign, he announced that the aid would be increased to Rs 2,500 per month if the JMM-led alliance was voted to power.
The election results saw JMM romping home with even greater numbers than its earlier performance, five years ago.
In Maharasthra, the MahaYuti comprising the BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP saw its fortunes dip drastically in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Just a month later in July, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde announced the 'Laadki Bahin Yojana' for women residents, announcing a monthly assistance of Rs 1,500 to one woman of a family whose annual household income is less than Rs 2.5 lakh.
The MahaYuti positioned its poll campaign around the 'Laadki Bahin Yojana', besides other issues. Despite stinging criticism from the Maha Vikas Agahi (MVA), it resonated well with the electorate, so much so that the latter was also forced to promise monthly aid of Rs 3,000 to women voters in its poll manifesto.
The result threw up a stunning surprise, with the BJP and its allies of the MahaYuti registering their best-ever performance in Maharashtra.
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