BJP, Congress compete with each other in announcing freebies in Madhya Pradesh

Though both the BJP and the Congress announced several sops for women, they have allotted less than 15 percent seats to women

Hyderabad: Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been quite vocal against what he calls ‘revdi’ culture, the Bharatiya Janata Party is now competing with the Congress in poll bound Madhya Pradesh to announce freebies to voters, especially farmers and women. The latest is the promise to procure wheat and paddy at Rs.2,700 and Rs.3,100 per quintal, respectively, which is Rs.1,000 more than the Minimum Support Price (MSP) announced by the government.

This is to counter the Congress manifesto which promises Rs 2,600 MSP per quintal of wheat and Rs 2,500 for paddy. In this election, while the Congress has promised a loan waiver, reduction of electricity bill by half, financial assistance to school children, Nari Samman Yojana for women, gas cylinder for Rs 500 and implementation of the old pension scheme for employees, the BJP has started the Ladli Behna scheme for women, implemented the Learn and Earn scheme for students and many schemes for farmers.

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The BJP on Saturday added a few more things to its sops for women, assured farmers of comprehensive MSP support and pledged a Rs.3 lakh crore investment on tribal welfare. The BJP has also announced plans to enhance financial support to girl children from birth until marriage to Rs 2 lakh as against the current Rs 1.43 lakh being offered under the existing ‘Laadli Lakshmi Yojana’. The Congress earlier promised to give Rs 2.5 lakh to girl children from their birth until marriage.

Interestingly, both the parties have failed to keep their poll promises in Madhya Pradesh and other States. The most recent example is the Congress government in Karnataka, where it failed to implement promises made in its poll manifesto, especially the free power promise. In Himachal Pradesh, the Congress failed to fulfill even one of the seven guarantees it promised during the assembly polls. The 15-month Kamal Nath government did not fulfill even a single guarantee made during the 2018 assembly election, including waiving of Rs. 2 lakh farm loans. Despite their poor track record of implementing poll promises, in order to woo the voters they are assuring everything under the sky in Madhya Pradesh, which is going to poll on November 17.

Though both the BJP and the Congress announced several sops for women, they have allotted less than 15 percent seats to women.