Shinde govt wanted to enslave women with Ladki Bahin scheme, people have seen intention, says Uddhav

Uddhav Thackeray says financial assistance scheme won't have impact in Maharashtra elections. On idea of Ajit Pawar's return, he says MVA won't need another partner after polls.

Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray in conversation with ThePrint | File Photo

Mumbai: Former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has claimed that the Eknath Shinde-led Mahayuti government’s Ladki Bahin scheme won’t have any impact on the state assembly elections Wednesday, saying the scheme was more about an “owner-slave” relation with the state’s women voters rather than a “brother-sister”’ bond. Ladki Bahin literally translates to ‘beloved sister’.

“Ladki Bahin will not have much of an impact because people have started understanding the intention behind the scheme,” Thackeray told ThePrint in an interview. 

He added: “They think that by giving Rs 1500 per month, all women have become their slaves. This won’t happen. Their emotion behind this scheme is not of brother-sister but of owner-slave.”

The Mahayuti government had announced the Mukhyamantri Ladki Bahin scheme in this year’s budget. Since August, eligible women whose annual income is less than Rs 2.5 lakh per annum have been receiving Rs 1,500 per month, which the Mahayuti has promised to increase to Rs 2,100 if it returns to power in the assembly polls. The ruling alliance consists of the Shinde-led Shiv Sena, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party.

In its manifesto, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)—which includes the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), the Congress, and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar)—has proposed a similar scheme, titled ‘Mahalakshmi’, which would give women financial assistance of Rs 3,000 per month.

Expressing confidence that the MVA would form the government, Thackeray added that his travels across the state in the past two weeks had shown him that agrarian distress was at its peak, especially in the Marathwada and Vidarbha regions.

“Farmers are worried about a lot of things, especially because soybean is not getting the minimum support price (MSP), which is why we have said that we will give soybean an MSP of Rs 7000 per quintal. Apart from that, we will provide security to women and free education to boys along with girls; all these will help us come back to power,” he said. 

Thackeray also ruled out the possibility of reconciling with either Shinde or the BJP after the elections. When asked if he would be comfortable with Ajit Pawar returning to the MVA, he said he was confident that there would be no need for another partner after the polls.

He said the “traitors” would lose and Maharashtra would go with those who were “fighting to save the state”.

The first assembly polls after the 2022 split in the Shiv Sena will be a major test for Thackeray’s Sena (UBT). While the MVA as a whole trumped the Mahayuti in this year’s Lok Sabha elections—winning 30 seats to the latter’s 17—the gap between the two Senas was smaller: Thackeray’s party won nine and Shinde’s won seven.