MP govt to launch 'Ladli Behna' scheme on March 5 to provide monthly financial aid to women in poll year

Months before the Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government will hold a big event in Bhopal on Sunday to kick off its flagship 'Ladli Behna Yojana', under which Rs 1,000 financial assistance will be provided to every woman in the age group of 23 to 60 in the state.

The launch of the event coincides with CM Chouhan's 65th birthday.

Through this scheme, the BJP government in the state wants to give a message that it stands by its women citizens firmly, a bid to woo them ahead of the elections, political analysts said.

In the 2018 Assembly polls, the saffron party had lost to the Congress by a whisker. So this time, it wants to win the election by keeping women voters in good books, they said. In the last election, the Congress had come to power after a gap of 15 years. The Congress government led by Kamal Nath, however, collapsed after 15 months of its rule as 22 MLAs led by their leader Jyotiraditya Scinda rebelled against the grand old party.

The elections in the state are due by the end of this year. While presenting the state Budget 2023-24 in the Assembly on March 1, Finance Minister Jagdish Devda said the government has earmarked Rs 8,000 crore for the Mukhyamantri Ladli Behna Yojana, under which women will be given Rs 1,000 per month of financial assistance subject to certain conditions.

The scheme's launch event will be held at Jamboree ground in Bhopal. The government will start accepting applications from women beneficiaries from March 5, officials said. The work of filling applications will be completed during the March-April period and the government plans to start disbursing the amount to beneficiaries by June 10, they added.

In the Rs 3.14 lakh crore state budget presented on Wednesday, there are proposals worth Rs 1.02 lakh crore meant for women, an increase of 22 per cent as compared to the last budget. Women, whose family income is below Rs 2.5 lakh per annum, are expected to benefit from the Ladli Behna scheme, officials said, adding that there are 2,60,23,733 women voters in the state. Of the total 230 Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh, there are 18 constituencies where the women voters outnumber their male counterparts, including in tribal-dominated Balaghat, Mandla, Dindori, Alirajpur and Jhabua districts.

As per the estimates, of the new 13.39 lakh voters, 7.07 lakh are women.