The slugfest of competitive poll promises between the Opposition Congress-backed Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and the ruling BJP-backed Eknath Shinde-led Mahayuti alliance has reached a climax in the run-up to the assembly elections with one political alliance out to beat the other in announcing programmes.

The Congress party has declared that it plans to file a complaint with the Election Commission of India (ECI) against print advertisements published by the BJP in various newspapers purported to misrepresent the election promises made by the Opposition party without any attribution.

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Talking to the media in Mumbai on Thursday, senior Congress leader and Maharashtra in-charge Ramesh Chennithala said the BJP has been deliberately releasing advertisements to spread rumours and misinformation against the guarantees announced by Congress.

“Some advertisements have been published in various newspapers without any attribution. The Congress will file a complaint with the Election Commission about this. In Karnataka, Telangana, and Himachal Pradesh, Congress has already started implementing the guarantees it promised, but the BJP is deliberately spreading false information. All guarantees, including the Mahalaxmi Scheme announced by Rahul Gandhi yesterday (Wednesday, November 6) at the Bandra-Kurla Complex Ground, were announced only after a careful study and a thorough discussion about how exactly funds would be allocated,” Chennithala added.

Both the alliances in the state, the ruling Mahayuti comprising the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, the BJP and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP-AP) and the Opposition comprising Congress, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP-SP) have announced their promises and “guarantees”.

Yesterday (Wednesday, November 6), on behalf of the MVA, Rahul Gandhi announced its ‘Mahalaxmi Yojana’ at the Bandra-Kurla Complex Ground public rally. “I will speak about the Mahalaxmi Yojana, which is aimed to transfer Rs 3000 in the bank account of every woman in Maharashtra every month. Bus tickets will be free for women across the state of Maharashtra. You may ask why. That is because the women of Maharashtra have borne the brunt of BJP’s attack through inflation,” Gandhi said.

The other MVA “guarantees” include waiver of farm loans up to Rs 3 lakh across Maharashtra, an incentive payment of Rs 50,000 to farmers who consistently repay their loans, monthly support of Rs 4,000 to every unemployed youth in the state of Maharashtra, affordable health insurance of Rs 25 lakh to all households as well as free-of-cost essential medicines in government hospitals.

In this context, it may be recalled that the Mahayuti alliance led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had announced its ‘Ladki Bahin Yojana’ in its Maharashtra state budget in June itself with an eye on the impending assembly elections. The ‘Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana’, as it is called, had initially offered women from indigent families a monthly dole of Rs 1,500. Under the scheme, women in the state, with an annual family income of less than Rs 2.5 lakh, were eligible to get Rs 1,500 per month in their bank accounts.

The Mahayuti government in Maharashtra had banked on this scheme, modelled on the BJP’s successful ‘Ladli Behna Yojana’ in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, to counter anti-incumbency. Accordingly, the Shinde government even deposited Rs 1,500 in the bank accounts of female beneficiaries in November, as per its ‘Ladki Bahin Yojana’.

However, as soon as word got out that the Congress-backed MVA had moved to counter the Mahayuti government’s ‘Ladki Bahin Yojana’, Eknath Shinde lost no time in responding to it with an increase in the amount under the ‘Ladki Bahin Yojana’ from the earlier Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,100 after sensing that his government had lost its first mover advantage.

Speaking at a recent rally of the BJP-backed Mahayuti in Kolhapur, Maharashtra Eknath Shinde said after returning to power, the Mahayuti alliance would increase the monthly assistance to women under its ‘Ladki Bahin Yojana’ to Rs 2,100 from Rs 1,500. “We also plan to recruit 25,000 women in the police force.

He also promised a farm loan waiver and an expanded ‘Shetkari Samman Yojana’, raising the annual financial assistance to farmers from Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000. “Farmers will also get a 20 per cent subsidy on the Minimum Support Price (MSP),” he added.

Similarly, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar (NCP-AP) lost no time dismissing the MVA’s Mahalaxmi Yojana as a “bluff”. “Today, if the MVA claims it will give Rs 3,000 per month to women, the expenditure may reach Rs 90,000 crore. The MVA has also promised Rs 4,000 per month to unemployed youth. If there are one lakh unemployed youth who benefit from the scheme, the expenditure on that scheme will be around Rs 40,000 crore. So, Rs 1.5 lakh crore will be needed for these two schemes, while the Maharashtra state budget is only Rs 7 lakh crore. How will they manage salaries, pensions, and interest on loans,” Ajit Pawar asked.

However, as things stand, promises and “guarantees” seem to be the only things that matter and nobody seems bothered about the sustainability or viability of all this expenditure or its impact on the exchequer or fiscal deficit.