Delhi Budget: Arvind Kejriwal
– Photo: Amar Ujala/Rahul Bisht
Expansion
The politics that Arvind Kejriwal started by announcing free schemes made him invincible in Delhi. On the basis of these free schemes, Aam Aadmi Party won a landslide victory in Punjab after Delhi and later became a national party. Now that Arvind Kejriwal is in danger of being arrested in a liquor scam just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Delhi government has taken the freebie announcements to a new level.
The party has announced to give one thousand rupees per month to every woman of the capital. Aam Aadmi Party itself has termed it as the arrival of Ram Rajya in the capital. With these announcements, the Arvind Kejriwal government can once again increase its popularity among the poor and slum dwellers, which was said to be declining at the moment. This is being called a big election bet of Aam Aadmi Party.
What did the Delhi government give?
Delhi Government Finance Minister Atishi Marlena, while presenting the budget in the Assembly, has said that Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman Yojana will be started from next year. Under this, every woman above 18 years of age will be given one thousand rupees per month. Before this, the then Shivraj Singh government in Madhya Pradesh had changed all the political equations by announcing to give Rs 1250 to every woman under the Laadli scheme. Aam Aadmi Party can also get similar success in Delhi.
Aam Aadmi Party can make such an announcement in its states, but BJP cannot make any such election promise because if it makes such an announcement, it will have to bring such a scheme at the national level, which will require huge expenditure. Which the government already lacks. But Arvind Kejriwal can play this gamble because he will have to fulfill this promise only in Delhi and Punjab, where he has governments.
This announcement by Kejriwal government can once again bring a big change in the political equations of Delhi. BJP had won unilaterally in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, but this time Aam Aadmi Party and Congress are contesting the elections together. This may bring changes in the political circumstances of Delhi. Such announcements of Kejriwal government can also create difficulties in the path of BJP.
BJP criticized
Delhi BJP leader Virendra Sachdeva has said that Arvind Kejriwal does such political stunts for the sake of cheap publicity. He is avoiding facing investigation in the liquor scam, and is talking about bringing Ram Rajya in Delhi. He should tell whether liquor will be distributed like this everywhere in his Ram Rajya.
He said that those who have been appeasing Muslims for 9 years are now suddenly talking about Ramrajya. He alleged that Kejriwal, upset with the support for Modi that arose among the public after the construction of Ram temple, wants to confuse people by linking his budget to Ram Rajya. He said that the public will never forgive Kejriwal for misusing Ram’s name.