Ahead of the Assembly elections in Maharashtra, the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi on Wednesday announced that it will provide financial aid of Rs 3,000 per month and free transportation on all government buses to women under the Mahalakshmi scheme, if voted to power.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi comprises the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), Sharad Pawar’s faction of the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress.
The alliance released its manifesto at a rally in Mumbai attended by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi.
The polling for the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly will take place in a single phase on November 20. The counting of votes will take place on November 23, alongside that of the Jharkhand elections.
The Mahalakshmi scheme announcement came in the wake of the ruling Mahayuti alliance promising to increase the monthly payments under the Ladki Bahin scheme to Rs 2,100.
Women aged 21 to 65 whose annual family income is under Rs 2.5 lakh are provided Rs 1,500 per month in Maharashtra under the scheme. The scheme was launched in July.
The Mahayuti alliance comprises the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction and the Nationalist Congress Party faction led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.
It was not immediately clear if there would be an eligible criteria to avail of the Mahalakshmi scheme.
Apart from this, the Maha Vikas Aghadi also promised to waive farm loans up to Rs 3 lakh for all farmers. The farmers who consistently repay their loans will receive Rs 50,000 as an incentive.
The Opposition alliance has also promised monthly support of Rs 4,000 for unemployed youth. Each household will be entitled to affordable health insurance coverage worth Rs 25 lakh, it said. Essential medicines will be made available free of charge in government hospitals.
“This is the election of ideologies,” The Indian Express quoted Gandhi as saying while releasing the manifesto. “I promise that on the lines of our Congress governments in Telangana and Karnataka, our government will undertake caste census.”
He also reiterated his promise to do away with the 50% cap on caste-based reservations that was put in place by the Supreme Court in 1992.
Additionally, Thackeray announced that the tender given to the Adani Group for the Dharavi Redevelopment Project and the allotment of land parcels for it will be cancelled if the alliance wins the election.
Adani’s Dharavi Redevelopment Project aims to rehouse 6.5 lakh residents who live in the 2.5-sq-km precinct that is considered to be one of the world’s largest slums. The project is a joint venture between the Maharashtra government and the Adani Group.
In the past two months, the Shinde-led Cabinet has allowed the allotment of 124 acres of Deonar dumping ground, around 140 acres of land in Madh, 255 acres of ecologically fragile salt pan land and 21 acres of Kurla dairy land for the project.
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