The practice of voting out the incumbent government every five years may be a thing of the past, thanks to Gehlot’s people-friendly schemes.
NEW DELHI: The budget with the subject of “Bachat, Rahat, Badhat” presented by Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot for the fiscal year 2023-2024 on Friday has given the common man reasons to cheer. At the same time, CM Gehlot’s budget has raised hopes of the Congress ahead of several electoral battles this year.
Aimed at reducing the burden of inflation on the common man, CM Gehlot’s budget has offered relief to every section of the society. From the very beginning, all eyes were on what Gehlot was going to offer in his budget. Apart from the Congress high command, the BJP central leadership was also keeping a close watch on this budget.
What underlines the importance of Gehlot’s budget is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the first time in eight years of his tenure had to refer to the decisions of a state government (Rajasthan) in Parliament. PM Modi was heard making a veiled criticism of the “Old Pension Scheme” that the Rajasthan government has revived. This shows how worried the BJP is due to pressure resulting from revival of OPS. The schemes and reliefs announced by Gehlot in the budget may not only be instrumental in return of Congress in Rajasthan but may also benefit the party in other states. The big battle of 2024 may be quite challenging for BJP, if Congress manages to win elections in various states including Rajasthan on the ground of Gehlot’s people-friendly decisions.
There is no denying that CM Gehlot had to face a lot of problems due to pandemic and internal rebellion during the first three years of his third term. But Gehlot emerged a winner, overcoming challenges that his rivals posed. He also won the battle against Covid pandemic. His management during the pandemic outbreak hit the headlines at the national and international levels. The CM dominated the public discourse by virtue of various schemes that he announced in the fourth year of his tenure. One of these schemes was OPS, which benefited Congress in the Himachal Pradesh elections. Even non-Congress and non-BJP states also implemented the scheme. The BJP ruled states are also under pressure now.
After criticism from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gehlot expanded the purview of OPS, and included the university, corporation and board employees in it. The Chief Minister promised a Rs 19,000 crore inflation relief package to help the general public cope with rising prices. In what will give BJP anxious moments, CM Gehlot announced per unit LPG cylinder for consumers at Rs 500 covering 76 lakh families, under the Ujjawala Yojana scheme. So far, consumers under this Central government’s scheme get a cylinder at Rs 1,200 per unit. Ujjwala Yojana played an important role in PM Modi’s return to power for the second term.
The beneficiaries of Ujjwala Yojana were facing difficulty due to steep hike in prices of cylinders after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Other states may also follow Gehlot’s decision to reduce burden for Ujjwala consumers. This will also add to BJP’s challenges.
CM Gehlot’s Chiranjeevi Swasthya Bima Yojana has announced an increase in the coverage amount from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh annually per family. This is the only scheme in the world that covers not only the poor but also the rich for the treatment in private hospitals. Gehlot’s decision to increase the accidental insurance coverage from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh under the Chiranjeevi scheme is also laudable.
Similarly, CM announced to give free Annapurna food packets every month along with free ration to about one crore families under the purview of National Food Security Act in what will go a long way helping Congress to woo the poor class. Domestic consumers have been given 100 units of electricity free of cost per month under CM Free Electricity Scheme. This limit was 50 units last year.
With this more than 1.04 crore families out of 1.19 crore in the state will be able to get domestic power free of cost. The CM aims to provide free electricity to domestic users consuming 300 units per month in a phased manner.
Similarly, free electricity upto 2000 units would be provided to 11 lakh farmers. CM Gehlot has tried to woo every section, be it women, students, farmers or youth. The BJP is criticising the budget, but it cannot raise a finger at the implementation part of it. The government employees are already happy. Observers are of the view that the families getting cheap cylinders would not fall prey to “politics of religion” any longer.
Now the Congress needs to popularise these schemes across the states. The central leadership needs to pursue the strategy more aggressively. The Congress’ challenge will grow manifold in 2024 if it fails to cash in on CM Gehlot’s schemes as unfolded in the budget. It is believed that the voters would end the tradition of government change in Rajasthan during the year-end Assembly elections, thanks to the Gehlot government’s schemes aimed at benefiting the common man.