Madhya Pradesh Elections: Ladli Behna may emerge as new welfare economics template as BJP's set to sweep

CM Shivraj Chouhan gives credit to PM Modi's poll campaign as BJP leads in Madhya Pradesh

As the BJP looks to romp home with a sweeping majority in Madhya Pradesh, overcoming a 20-year anti-incumbency, voter fatigue, rising unemployment, and elevated inflation, the government’s strategy to turn the lens on women voters with sharply focussed welfare programmes seem to have paid off well.

There are 5.6 crore voters in Madhya Pradesh. Of this 2.7 crore are women and, in more than 12 percent, or 29, of the 230 Assembly constituencies, women outnumber men voters.

Nearly eight months before the elections, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan made known the approach to the election strategy. On March 1, 2023, state finance minister Jadgish Devda began his budget speech by chanting 'shlokas' (hymns) praying to Lord Mahakaleshwar, one of the 12 'jyotirlingas' in the country located in Ujjain.

The budget, the last in the incumbent government’s current term, however, stood out for the Rs 8,000-crore Mukhyamantri Ladli Bahna Yojana. Soon after, Chouhan launched the scheme with a single click and called it a milestone towards women’s empowerment. Some 12 million women will receive Rs 1,000 every month, which will be progressively raised to Rs 3,000, under the welfare scheme.

This was seen as a smart counter-attack against the Congress’s poll guarantee of providing Rs 1,500 per month to women if voted to power.

“This scheme has been started with Rs 1,000 per month, but I will not give only one thousand. The amount will increase gradually,” he said. “I will increase it to Rs 1,200 per month and Rs 1,500 per month. As soon as the money is arranged in the coming year, I will increase it to Rs 3,000 per month.”

Chouhan also reduced the minimum age required for availing of benefits under the Ladli Bahna scheme from 23 to 21.

The total number of beneficiaries has now touched 13.2 million across the state, as Chouhan drew a link between his efforts and the Women’s Reservation Bill of the Centre. Madhya Pradesh was also among the first states to introduce 50 percent reservation for women in elections to panchayats and urban bodies. It also has 30 percent reservations for women in the police force. The state also offers concessional tariffs for the registry of property in case it is in a woman’s name.

Women ‘labharthees’ clearly seems to have played a pivotal role in the BJP’s resurgence, driven by new welfare measures like the ‘Ladli Behna’ scheme that put money directly in their pockets.