Will Revdis In Maharashtra Tilt The Scale In Favour Of Mahayuti?

It’s been raining doles or revdis in Maharashtra. Be it for women, girl college students, unemployed youth, the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government has been promising stipends, free gas cylinders and subsidies almost every week. Leading the pack has been the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana that promises monthly stipend of Rs 1500 for women, which has got overwhelming response with over 1.8 crore applications received. Each of the faction of the Mahayuti alliance be it the chief minister Eknath Shinde from the Shiv Sena, Ajit Pawar or Devendra Fadnavis, have been taking credit for it, even before the disbursement of first instalment scheduled on Raksha Bandhan day (Aug 19).  Though the state has over Rs 7.8 lakh crore debt, it has already sanctioned Rs 35,000 crores of the annual outlay of Rs 46,000 crore this budget for this scheme. This scheme, which is the equivalent of Madhya Pradesh’s Ladli Behna scheme, is expected to replay the MP government electoral verdict here. A recent survey by Sakaal media group has shown that the ruling Mahayuti front could bag 136 seats as opposed to 152 seats by the MVA front and the Mahayuti hopes that this scheme could help cover up the short gap in the numbers game between the ruling and opposing front explains. Shinde Sena’s spokesperson Sanjay Nirupam. These schemes could tilt the scale in favour of Mahayuti. Devendra Fadnavis has asked people not to enrol from desks set up by offices of opposition parties, as they might not submit forms in a bid to discredit the scheme. Though Ajit Pawar claims that the state has enough funds to continue these schemes, he warned people against voting for opposition lest they discontinue this scheme.