Betting big on women voters in Madhya Pradesh, a few months before the assembly elections, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government in the state is all set to launch the ‘Laadli Bahna Yojana’ from Sunday, under which a monthly assistance of Rs 1,000 will be given to eligible women of the state. .
Officials said on Saturday that at least one lakh women from urban and rural areas are likely to attend the event at Bhopal’s Jamboree Ground. This program will start with the 65th birthday of Chief Minister Chouhan. According to political analysts, through this scheme, the BJP government wants to send a message to the state that it stands firmly with its women citizens.
Significantly, in the 2018 assembly elections, the saffron party lost to the Congress by a narrow margin. So this time she wants to win the election by keeping the women voters in a good position.
In the last election, the Congress came to power after a gap of 15 years, but Jyotiraditya Scindia along with 22 MLAs deserted the Congress, leading to the fall of the Kamal Nath-led government.
State Finance Minister Jagdish Deora while presenting the state budget 2023-24 in the Assembly on March 1 said, “The government has fixed Rs 8,000 crore for the ‘Mukhyamantri Ladli Bahna Yojana’ under which women will be eligible under certain conditions.” Financial assistance of Rs 1,000 per month will be given.
Officials said the government will start accepting applications from women beneficiaries from March 5. He said that the work of accepting applications would be completed in March-April and by June 10, the beneficiaries would start getting financial assistance. Officials said that women whose family income is less than Rs 2.5 lakh per annum will be given benefits from the Ladli Bahna Yojana.
He said that there are 2,60,23,733 women voters in the state. Out of the total 230 assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh, 18 constituencies have more female voters than male voters, including tribal-dominated Balaghat, Mandla, Dindori, Alirajpur and Jhabua districts. According to estimates, out of 13.39 lakh new voters, 7.07 lakh are women.
