On Sunday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) officials announced their party’s platform for the Maharashtra Assembly elections. The manifesto featured the Mahayuti government’s Ladki Bahin project, which is overseen by Eknath Shinde.
It attributed Manohar Parrikar with pioneering it in Goa, which the BJP-led governments of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have since followed. The BJP vowed to increase the monthly installment of the plan from Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,100 if the Mahayuti returned to power.
The manifesto committed to make Maharashtra a $1 trillion economy by 2028, legislate an Ease of Doing Business Act, implement Make in Maharashtra policy to make India’s manufacturing hub.
In a foreword to the manifesto, Sankalp Patra 2024, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis countered the Opposition’s criticism that key projects were moved from Maharashtra to Gujarat during the Mahayuti government’s tenure. He stated that 52% of all foreign investment into India has come to Maharashtra in recent years.
Other promises included inducting 25,000 women into the state police force, a promise to waiver farm loans and increasing the Kisan Samman Nidhi allowance from Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000 annually. It committed to introducing price support for farmers, “in alignment with the minimum support price”, to cover price variation of up to 20 per cent”. The manifesto stated that farmers will receive a rebate on the entire state GST on purchased fertilisers, refunded to them as subsidy and also promised to pay Rs 6,000 per quintal minimum price for soybean.
The opposition MVA on Sunday released its manifesto for the state assembly polls, promising a caste-based census, establishment of a separate department for the empowerment of self-help groups, formation of a dedicated ministry for child welfare, and six cooking gas cylinders every year at Rs 500 each to women. It also promised a new industrial policy and a dedicated ministry for the micro, small & medium enterprises. The MVA assured to take immediate measures to control the prices of essential commodities.
The BJP promised to provide a monthly stipend of Rs 10,000 to 1 million students across Maharashtra, create 2.5 million jobs, reduce electricity bills by 30 per cent, increase old age pension from Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,100 and Aanganwadi and ASHA workers to get Rs 15,000 monthly honoraria.
The manifesto committed to make Maharashtra a $ 1 trillion economy by 2028, legislate an Ease of Doing Business Act, implement Make in Maharashtra policy to make India’s manufacturing hub, establish the Vidarbha-Marathwada defence circuit corridor, and develop Nagpur, Pune, Ahilyanagar (Ahmednagar), Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar (Aurangabad) and Nashik as aerospace technology and manufacturing hubs.
It said it would work to repurpose the 32 defunct coal mines in Vidarbha, conduct a ‘skill census’ and introduce the Mahagatishakti initiative to integrate infrastructure projects from across state departments, such as roadways, ports, industrial corridors and airports. Other promises included providing interest free loans of up to Rs 1.5 million to SC, ST and OBC entrepreneurs and enacting a law against “forced and fraudulent conversions”.
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Source: Business Standard
