New Delhi: With assembly polls on the horizon, Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal declared the rollout of the Mukhya Mantri Mahila Samman Yojna and promised to raise the monthly assistance to women under the scheme from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,100 after the elections. He, however, clarified that the money would be credited into beneficiaries’ bank accounts only after the polls.
Calling himself a magician with accounts, Kejriwal said at an event at the AAP headquarters on Thursday, “BJP is asking where the money for this will come from because govt doesn’t have enough. They said the exact thing when I promised free electricity during the 2013 elections. I want to tell BJP: I am a magician. I know where to get money from, where to save it and where to spend it. If I make a promise, I will fulfil it.”
Chief minister Atishi, meanwhile, said if the model code of conduct for elections is imposed after Jan 13, the first instalment of the money will be transferred into the bank accounts of eligible women before the elections. Delhi govt has allocated Rs 2,000 crore for the scheme in the state budget. Eligible women above the age of 18 years shouldn’t be employed with govt or pension recipients and they shouldn’t be GST or income taxpayers. The scheme is likely to benefit around 45 lakh eligible women.
The registration for the Mukhya Mantri Mahila Samman Yojna, which was announced in the 2024-25 state budget by then finance minister and now CM Atishi, will begin on Friday. The scheme originally proposed to provide Rs 1,000 per month to all eligible women in Delhi aged above 18 years. “The registration for the scheme will start tomorrow and it will be for Rs 2,100,” Kejriwal announced to cheers. “This scheme is for empowering women and addressing their financial needs. While BJP calls it free ‘revdi’, I see it as a step towards strengthening our society.”
The AAP leader also expressed confidence that his party would perform magnificently in the polls and urged women to actively support them. “If all women work together, we will secure more than 60 of the 70 seats,” asserted Kejriwal. AAP, pitted against a confident BJP trying to upstage it in the polls due in Feb next year, believes the announcement will boost its chances in the elections.
BJP, which is yet to publish its manifesto, attacked Kejriwal, asking why the AAP govt in Punjab hadn’t implemented such a scheme for women there despite a similar announcement made before the polls in the state in 2022. “Kejriwal is only repeating his fake promise. Even during the Lok Sabha polls in Delhi, they got women to fill up forms but paid them nothing,” claimed Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva. “Why did Arvind Kejriwal take 10 months to give cabinet approval for the Mahila Samman Yojna which he first announced in February?”
South Delhi MP Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said that after making a provision of Rs 2,000 crore in the state budget this year, the eligible women of Delhi should have got Rs 1,000 each from April itself. Saying that this wasn’t done, Bidhuri said, “See how this announcement has been made just before the elections. Before the Lok Sabha elections too, Aam Aadmi Party got the women to fill forms for a so-called pension for them. Where did those forms go? After all that, they have now been asked to apply online.”
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