Cash and Caste

India is the biggest ‘showcase of democracy’ as per electoral panorama and, yet it has the ‘privilege of historical backwardness’. All political parties, irrespective of their flag and professed ideology, indulge in casteist politics to win elections. In addition to caste, they now increasingly rely on cash doles to influence voters, specifically targeting women. In the past decade, women have emerged as a new vote bank that appears to be voting on more than just identity and emotive issues.

Before the Assembly polls in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh, the ruling alliances in all three states were speculated to be facing anti-incumbency. No that didn’t happen, The anti-incumbency factor finally had very little impact on the outcome of elections, albeit runaway inflation, price rise and unemployment continue to affect life and livelihoods of population. The INDIA bloc returned to power in Jharkhand while the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP)-led NDA won Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh with brute majority. The NDA has put up an impressive show in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Assam bypolls.

In 2021, Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal launched ‘LakshmirBhandar’ scheme that gives Rs 1000 every month to economically disadvantaged women. And it worked despite massive corruption charges against the ruling party. They won all the six assembly seats in bypolls with comfortable margins. In truth women made all the difference and the state is now virtually opposition free. Not for nothing most states are now emulating Bengal model to influence women voters who make up the largest vote bank of all at almost half the electorate.

Every party has been rolling out schemes that either support their empowerment through representation on reservation in government jobs or put money directly in their accounts. In Maharashtra cash handout plans for women announced or tweaked just ahead of the elections played the trick. In Maharashtra where the BJP-led NDA won over three fourths of the seats, the women voting percentage has risen by 6 percentage points. Rural distress was sidelined momentarily. The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha government started the MukhyamantriMaiyaSammanYojana in August this year giving all women in the age group of 18-50 years Rs 1000 per month while promising to increase it to Rs 2500 per month from December 2024. And on 68 out of total 81 seats, women’s turnout was higher than that of men.

In Maharashtra, under the MukhyamantriMajhiLadkiBahinYojna, women between the ages of 21 and 65 years, with an annual family income of up to Rs 2.5 lakh, have been receiving Rs 1,500 per month since July. The majority of the 2.34 crore women who benefit from this Yojana received a total of Rs 7,500 in their accounts before the date of polling. As the Election Commission delayed the assembly elections, allegedly allowing the government enough time to transfer four to five months of installments of benefits to women’s bank accounts, women voters didn’t disappoint the ruling coalition. Voters were actually looking at more immediate benefits they were getting from cash transfer programme. So the problems of farmers can wait.

The opposition, particularly the Congress failed to convert the grievances of the poor into electoral issues and reaped the bitter harvest. As for the left the less said the better. At the national level they don’t exist. Even in Bengal they have lost deposits in bypolls. Perhaps they are happy that they are still invited to reflect their viewpoints on local TV channels. For the time being the Congress, being the main opposition, may derive some comfort from the fact that they have now three members from the Gandhi family in Parliament!

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 24, Dec 8 - 14, 2024