Both the Congress and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Madhya Pradesh have been engaged in using every trick to woo voters for the Legislative Assembly elections to be held this year, including making a number of promises in their respective election campaigns.

Both the parties seem to be putting in more efforts for the upcoming Assembly elections since the state witnessed a neck to neck contest between the BJP and the Congress in the 2018 Assembly elections wherein the parties failed to get an absolute majority.

The Congress had won 114 seats in the 230-member Assembly while the saffron party had 109 seats in its fold. Congress then formed a government headed by Kamal Nath, which was later dissolved in March 2020, due to the defection of 22 leaders under the leadership of present Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.

The BJP government led by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has introduced various schemes to gain popularity among voters, including ‘Ladli Behna’ Yojana through which women of the state will receive a sum of Rs 1,000 monthly. Along with announcing the ‘Yuva Niti’ programme, it has been declared that an amount of Rs 8,000 will be provided to students undergoing training and the fees of recruitment examinations will have to be paid only once a year.

The ruling government has also implemented Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) for the tribal class and also introduced several schemes for the Scheduled Caste as well.

On the other hand, Congress state President Kamal Nath, in an attempt to woo the crucial 48 per cent female voters in the state has announced that a sum of Rs 1,500 will be provided to women when the party forms government. Along with this, he stated that gas cylinders will be given for only Rs 500 to women.

Congress has already said that farmers’ loans would be waived off, which also contributed to the party’s win in the last Assembly elections.

Political analysts believe that winning the polls would pose a big challenge for both the ruling party and the Opposition Congress. A tough contest among the two is expected.

Even though the parties are introducing appealing schemes to win the polls, they have not yet come up with an answer to where they would get the budget for the same, said experts.