Poll-hit Mahayuti govt budgets for Assembly elections in its sop rollout

With the year-end state Assembly elections and the losses in the recent Lok Sabha polls weighing on its mind, the Mahayuti government led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde Friday presented a Budget where politics dominated over economics.

The first Budget in any state after the Lok Sabha elections, where the Narendra Modi government returned to power but with the help of numbers from allies, its announcements had something for everyone – farmers, women, students, and youths. It’s another matter that Maharashtra will struggle to meet these promises given its fiscal situation, with its debt standing at Rs 7.89 lakh crore.

The Budget provisions had a slew of sops involving expenditure of over Rs 1 lakh crore, including Rs 46,000 crore for the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Scheme, Rs 10,000 crore for the CM Yuva Karya Prashikshan Scheme, Rs 14,761 crore for the electricity bill waiver scheme for farmers using agriculture pumps up to a certain horsepower, and the Annapurna scheme promising three free cylinders per year to over 52 lakh families across the state.

Presenting his 10th Budget (eight times were in non-BJP governments), Finance Minister Ajit Pawar said: “When we draft the Budget, we also reflect on raising funds to meet the targets.”

The Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Scheme entails transfer of Rs 1,500 into the bank accounts of eligible women between the ages of 21 and 60 every month, beginning July 2024. Women make up 48% of the state’s voters.

The scheme is on the lines of the Madhya Pradesh government’s Laadli Behna initiative. Promises or policies around similar cash transfers to women have paid off for other parties in recent elections.

In the case of farmers, the Mahayuti government Budget promises region-specific financial assistance or welfare schemes, catered to onion, soyabean and cotton farmers. The unrest among cotton and soyabean farmers is believed to have caused huge losses for the BJP in its traditional stronghold of Vidarbha region in the Lok Sabha polls, reducing it to two out of 10 seats.

If small cotton and soyabean farmers owning up to 2 hectares of land are entitled to Rs 5,000 financial assistance per hectare in the kharif season, a package of Rs 851 crore has been extended to onion growers in North Maharashtra. Besides, there is Rs 5 per litre milk subsidy for dairy farmers, in an outreach to essentially western Maharashtra.

The hope is that the sops may boost the rural economy ahead of the state polls.

After the Lok Sabha results, state BJP leaders had expressed frustration over being ignored by Delhi leaders when they raised concerns over the Centre enforcing a ban on onion exports and failing to tackle the fall of soyabean and cotton prices. The Mahayuti government was seen as placing the interests of consumers ahead of those of farmers.

As the BJP seeks to woo back its OBC base, which has grown distant on account of the Mahayuti’s dilly-dallying over the Maratha quota issue, the Budget has a scheme to reimburse 100% of tuition and examination fees of girls from OBC categories and economically weaker sections. This covers professional degree/diploma courses in engineering, architecture, pharmacy, medicine and agriculture, and will benefit around 2.05 lakh girls starting from the academic year 2024-25.

The scheme is expected to entail additional expenditure of Rs 2,000 crore annually.

With unemployment recognised as a universal source of discontent with the BJP government, the Mahayuti government announced monthly stipend of Rs 10,000 to 10 lakh interns under the CM Yuva Karya Prashikshan Scheme.

The cut in petrol prices by 65 paise per litre and diesel prices by Rs 2.07 per litre is expected to ease inflationary pressures, which were identified as another factor in the BJP’s diminished performance.

Finally, there is the allocation of Rs 20,000 to each group undertaking the annual pilgrimage to Pandharpur. The devotees of Lord Vithal or the warkaris are settled across Maharashtra.

In the recent Lok Sabha polls, the BJP was reduced to nine seats in Maharashtra, from 23 it won in 2019. Overall, the Mahayuti won just 17 seats out of 48, with the rival Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition winning 30.

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