Delhi Elections Turn Into ‘Sop Opera’, But Whose Freebie Promises Will Voters Trust?

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Last Updated:January 20, 2025, 08:30 IST
The women’s allowance scheme to be rolled out in Delhi, by whichever party wins these elections, will nearly double the city’s subsidy bill to Rs 22,000 crore every year
The next 15 days will see people, and especially women, weigh the promises of AAP, BJP, and Congress and vote accordingly on February 5. (Representational image: News18)
With 15 days to go before votes are cast, the Delhi elections have started a war of freebies. The Aam Aadmi Party, the BJP, and the Congress are going all out to woo the voters with financial benefits and subsidies.The Aam Aadmi Party is giving 200 units of free electricity and 20,000 litres of free water a month to domestic consumers, free bus rides for women, and has promised Rs 2,100 a month for women if it is in power again. It has also promised free electricity and water for those staying on rent.
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The Congress has promised Rs 2,500 a month for women and 300 units of free power, but it is a small player in the Delhi polls.
The big counter in fact has come from the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has promised Rs 2,500 to women every month and gas cylinders at Rs 500. The party is also expected to announce certain units of free power and free water. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised that no existing public welfare scheme in Delhi will be stopped.
Freebies have determined the outcome of the Delhi elections in a big way, both in 2015 and 2020, when AAP won with massive mandates on the back of its sops. But this time, the BJP is posing a strong challenge with counter-freebies. The big question is, who will the people of Delhi believe in now?
We will come to that just in a bit. First, let us look at the burden of the freebies on the exchequer.
An estimated Rs 11,000 crore is spent on subsidies in Delhi every year, like free electricity, free water, and free bus rides for women. The women’s allowance scheme to be rolled out in Delhi, by whichever party wins these elections, will nearly double the city’s subsidy bill to Rs 22,000 crore every year.
Delhi has for long not been a revenue-deficit state but is poised to become one given the rising freebie bill.
But Delhi is not the only region that is getting weighed down under the rising bill of monthly payouts to women, which is becoming a standard poll promise across India.
Let’s talk about some history.
It all started in West Bengal in 2021, when Mamata Banerjee first brought the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme for women. Presently, Rs 1,000-Rs 1,200 per month is given to women under it. The scheme has had a deep impact on the Trinamool Congress’s poll successes in West Bengal.
The Congress took a leaf out of Mamata Banerjee’s book to promise Rs 1,500 per month for women during the 2022 Himachal Pradesh elections and won the state.
In 2023, the BJP jumped onto the bandwagon with the then chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, rolling out the Ladli Behna Yojana, under which Rs 1,250 per month is given to women. This scheme was seen as a major reason for the BJP’s thumping win in Madhya Pradesh.
In the same year, the Gruha Lakshmi scheme was launched by the Congress government in Karnataka with a monthly assistance of Rs 2,000 for women, again a promise that brought it to power in the elections.
2024 saw a flurry of states launch similar schemes.
Chhattisgarh rolled out the Mahtari Vandana Yojana with Rs 1,000 per month for women after a poll promise by the BJP that gave it a win.
The Congress promised the Maha Lakshmi Scheme with Rs 2,500 a month for women in the Telangana elections and won the state.
The JMM government in Jharkhand started the Maiya Samman Yojana in 2024 before the elections, offering Rs 1,000 monthly assistance to women, and was victorious.
Finally, the BJP in Maharashtra rolled out its women scheme at Rs 1,500 per month and won the recent elections with a huge majority.
So all parties have realised the winning mantra—a monetary scheme for women, as they are a major vote bank.
Now, the big question: whose promises will work in Delhi?
In past elections, what has been seen is that the first-mover advantage is key when it comes to offering women’s schemes. Whichever party can give the money first gets the pole position, compared to the party promising it. That means the incumbent party invariably has an advantage.
We have seen this both in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, where the BJP government sent some instalments of the money to the bank accounts of women before elections and won the polls as women trusted that party more whose government was already giving the money.
In rural areas of the country where women have invariably been dependent on the men in the family for money to run the household, the money coming directly into their bank accounts is a major empowering tool that gives them financial independence.
During our travels in earlier elections, women told us stories of how they had bought sarees for themselves and clothes or books for their children out of this money. There was also an apprehension that if the party giving the money goes out of power, the scheme may stop. This was despite the other party also offering a similar scheme.
The situation in Delhi is, however, somewhat different. In a city that has seen a massive rollout of freebies by the AAP government, the women’s scheme could not be launched by the party before these Delhi elections. Also, in Punjab, the AAP government has not been able to deliver the women’s scheme it promised during the assembly elections.
The arrest of Arvind Kejriwal in the alleged liquor scam derailed the rollout of the women’s scheme in Delhi, though Rs 2,000 crore was allocated for the scheme in last year’s Delhi budget. Once Arvind Kejriwal came out on bail, he resigned as the chief minister, further delaying the rollout of the scheme.
The Delhi cabinet finally approved the scheme last month, with Arvind Kejriwal promising Rs 2,100 a month for women if his party comes to power again. But the fact remains that no woman in Delhi has got the money so far.
Now, the BJP has upped the stakes, saying it will pay Rs 2,500 per month to women if it comes to power in Delhi after a gap of 27 years.
So while AAP is asking people to trust its earlier record of freebie delivery and says it guarantees the Rs 2,100 rollout for women after elections, the BJP is promising a higher amount of Rs 2,500, citing its record of delivering the promise in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
In the next 15 days, people, especially women, will weigh the promises of AAP, BJP, and Congress and vote accordingly on February 5. Delhiites are keeping their cards close to the chest.
Location : First Published:January 20, 2025, 08:30 IST
News elections Delhi Elections Turn Into ‘Sop Opera’, But Whose Freebie Promises Will Voters Trust?