As the winters set in last year, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen’s Pratichi Trust came up with a study report on Lakshmir Bhandar, a flagship scheme of the West Bengal government where financial assistance is provided to women, especially from the economically weaker sections of the society.
In its detailed study, it said since the scheme was introduced in the state, "85.55 per cent women report that they take the decision of how to spend the money themselves, followed by joint decision taking with husband at 10.76 per cent. The fact that solely husbands taking decisions is reported by only 2.69 per cent women."
The study went on to say, “this report attests to the fact that Lakshmir Bhandar has presented before women of modest and indigent background considerable promises for making a difference to their quotidian lives. Also, some of these promises are being actualised by their own agency and action through a 'small' sum that is important nonetheless. How 'small' an amount is may not be measured only in terms of its quantity, but also with respect to its qualitative potential.”
A simple question that pops up here is, why suddenly are we discussing Lakshmir Bhandar and its effects on women here? The answer is multi-pronged.
Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee proposed it in her Assembly election campaign in February 2021 and this very scheme proved to be one of the pole factors for the Trinamool Congress to dribble past anti-incumbency and emerge victorious with a bigger majority. Since then, direct cash transfers within a broader range of Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 per month to women has become the mantra, cutting across party lines. From the Mukhya Mantri Ladli Behna Yojana in Madhya Pradesh to the Gruha Laxmi scheme in Karnataka, from the Mahalakshmi scheme in Telangana to the Subhadra Yojana in Odisha, the growing trend of state-level financial interventions to economically empower women as well as encourage voter-engagement, is only paying dividends for political parties of all hues. The latest in the list are the Mukhya Mantri Mazhi Ladki Bahin Yojana in Maharashtra and the Maiya Samman Yojana in Jharkhand.
The decisive mandate in favour of the schemes that came from the women voters in these two states has been telling. Initial data from the Election Commission indicate that five per cent more voters queued up outside the polling booths of Maharashtra since the 2019 Assembly polls and women led the numbers. In Jharkhand also, women voters trumped men. Out of 81 Assembly seats in Jharkhand, 68 seats recorded a higher female turnout.
The figure of Jharkhand is quite a statement of sorts, where the state broke away from its 24-year jinx of never giving a chance to an incumbent government to the state's helm of affairs. There will surely be many factors leading up to the spectacular performance of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led INDIA bloc, but the effect of the Maiya Samman Yojana on women voters is an irrefutable fact, which shows that the formula of Direct Benefit Transfer of cash by the Hemant Soren-government resulted in what the Pratichi findings state - the feeling of being respected due to the relative economic freedom.
For Hemant Soren and his JMM, the rise has been a steady one, unlike his charismatic father and founder of JMM, Shibu Soren. JMM had only 18 seats in its kitty back in 2009, but the tally went up to 19 in 2014. When the results for 2019 Assembly elections were declared, JMM ended up with 30 seats. This time, the indigenous party of Jharkhand has upped its tally to 34.
When this happens to the JMM, it is obvious that the electoral casualty will be BJP, the main opposition party of the state. Just as JMM showed consistency in its win in 2019 and 2024, the saffron party slipped consistently. In fact, its performance in the tribal belts of Kolhan and Santhal Pargana has been nothing less than dismal.
Of the 14 seats of Kolhan region, where BJP heavily banked on turncoat Champai Soren, its hopes were dashed by the bow and arrow of JMM. Though Champai won from Saraikela, his son Babulal lost from Ghatshila. Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda's wife Meera lost from Potka. Sita Soren, Shibu Soren's eldest daughter-in-law, was defeated hands down in Jamtara. Adding to the list is former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda's wife Geeta, who lost from Jagannathpur. The only solace, which the saffron party can claim is, it has finally opened its book in the Kolhan with two seats, where it had drawn a naught in 2019.
The results in Santhal Pargana, which practically holds the key to the chair of Jharkhand, also went the JMM way. Of the 18 seats of Santhal Pargana, BJP could win only one. JMM alone won 11 seats with its ally, the Congress bagging four and RJD winning two seats.
Once the results of Kolhan and Santhal Pargana were out, BJP's fate was sealed. It was clear as daylight that the party with its allies AJSU and JD(U) had to remain content with its traditional bases of North Chotanagpur and Palamu. But, those seats would not have paved way for the NDA alliance to the Governor's House in Ranchi.
On November 3, when Union Home Minister Amit Shah, flanked by Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Union Minister and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan (both selected by the BJP as the backroom boys for the party for Jharkhand polls) and Jharkhand BJP president and former chief minister Babulal Marandi released BJP’s election manifesto in Ranchi, dubbed as Sankalp Patra, it drew the battle lines on terms of ‘infiltration’ and ‘changing demography’. It was also amply clear that the JMM will go all out in countering this in its own inimitable style. And it did.
Hemant Soren knew that his own tribe, the Santhals, would not be the only factor even if he successfully rallied them behind the JMM. He also needed the support of the Oraon, Munda and Ho tribal groups to consolidate the tribal votes. So, when Hemant gave a clarion call of “Abua Raaj” (my state) and “Abua Sarkar” (my government) and went to the electorate with the sentimental value attached to Shibu Soren and how his incarceration was a blatant conspiracy by the BJP against the tribals, he had simply turned the tables.
Hemant’s election rallies and gatherings resonated among the Kolhan and Santhal Pargana voters as it does for a son of soil, against the ‘outsider’ BJP trying to sell the idea of infiltration to the people who had never been a resident of a state which shares an international border. There were no takers, and the saffron party’s fortunes tanked.
Another important aspect, which Messrs Himanta and Shivraj could not calculate, was the Jairam Mahato and his Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha (JLKM) factor. Apart from winning the Dumri seat of Giridih where he defeated JMM stalwart Jagarnath ‘Tiger’ Mahato’s widow Bebi, this political greenhorn has upset results in several Assembly seats in the Chotanagpur belt. BJP simply failed to understand how JLKM split the NDA votes of the Kurmi-Mahato community in Ranchi, Ramgarh, Dhanbad, Bokaro and Giridih, paving the way for a JMM or its partner’s win.
In the seat of Bermo, the JLKM candidate pushed BJP to the third position. In Silli, Sudesh Mahto of AJSU, a NDA ally, lost to JMM. Once the votes were counted, it was found that the JLKM candidate had polled nearly double the number of votes of the winning margin of JMM. The same happened in Bokaro and Ramgarh. In seats like Gomia and Chandankiyari, NDA candidates lost to JMM, thanks to the JLKM nominees coming second.
Mamata Banerjee has plans to share the dais with Hemant Soren on November 28 in Ranchi when the latter walks up the podium alongside the Jharkhand Governor Santosh Gangwar to take oath as Jharkhand’s first Chief Minister to retain office. And when that happens, the latter can spare a moment for the Didi of Bengal and her Lakshmir Bhandar. Undoubtedly, the Maiya Samman Yojana of JMM and the overwhelming support of women voters did cement JMM’s path to the promised chair of Jharkhand, for a second consecutive time.
For the BJP, it should be a lesson taught the tough way. With the ruling AAP in Delhi already proposing its own version of Laxmir Bhandar in its Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman Yojana of Rs 1,000 to Delhi's female voters above 18 who neither pay taxes nor receive other government benefits, direct cash benefits to women and their electoral benefits could eventually fetch the golden egg for Arvind Kejriwal and company.
