“Ladki Bahin will not have much of an impact because people have started understanding the intention behind the scheme,” Thackeray told ThePrint in an interview.
He added: “They think that by giving Rs 1500 per month, all women have become their slaves. This won’t happen. Their emotion behind this scheme is not of brother-sister but of owner-slave.”
The Mahayuti government had announced the Mukhyamantri Ladki Bahin scheme in this year’s budget. Since August, eligible women whose annual income is less than Rs 2.5 lakh per annum have been receiving Rs 1,500 per month, which the Mahayuti has promised to increase to Rs 2,100 if it returns to power in the assembly polls. The ruling alliance consists of the Shinde-led Shiv Sena, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party.
In its manifesto, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)—which includes the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), the Congress, and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar)—has proposed a similar scheme, titled ‘Mahalakshmi’, which would give women financial assistance of Rs 3,000 per month.
Expressing confidence that the MVA would form the government, Thackeray added that his travels across the state in the past two weeks had shown him that agrarian distress was at its peak, especially in the Marathwada and Vidarbha regions.
“Farmers are worried about a lot of things, especially because soybean is not getting the minimum support price (MSP), which is why we have said that we will give soybean an MSP of Rs 7000 per quintal. Apart from that, we will provide security to women and free education to boys along with girls; all these will help us come back to power,” he said.
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