New Delhi: Former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal Thursday announced monthly financial assistance of Rs 2,100 to eligible women in Delhi in the event of the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) victory in the 2025 assembly elections, falling back on a poll promise that is credited with scripting the electoral success of several parties in the past few years.
Kejriwal dismissed concerns over the financial implications of implementing such a scheme, describing himself as a “magician of accounts”, as hundreds of women workers of the ruling AAP thronged the party headquarters and cheered the announcement.
Kejriwal himself made it clear that the monthly payout, which will be credited into accounts, will kick in only after the elections, even as questions remain unanswered on the objections regarding the scheme raised by the Delhi finance department.
The AAP has touted the scheme as a “game-changer”, suggesting that it is pinning its hopes on it in a major way in its bid to return to power after two straight terms in Delhi.
“This is no favour. Our women run families, raise children with good values. There is a saying in Hinduism that God resides where women are worshipped. The BJP accuses me of distributing revdis (freebies). I would like to respond by quoting what a woman told me: free ki revdi khayenge, mote hote jayenge (we will consume free revdis and fatten ourselves up),” Kejriwal said.
“As the elections will be announced in 10 to 15 days, it will not be possible to send money to the accounts (of women). But the scheme has been implemented from today,” he added.
As Delhi finance minister, Atishi, who is now the CM of the national capital, had first announced the Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman Yojana in the 2024-25 annual budget of Delhi, allotting Rs 2,000 crore for the scheme under which the monthly assistance to women was to be Rs 1,000.
However, there was no headway in its implementation as the AAP landed in a major crisis following the arrest of Kejriwal in the excise policy case in March this year.
On Thursday, Kejriwal said that after some women approached him, requesting him to hike the quantum of assistance, he decided to raise the payout to Rs 2,100 per month.
According to AAP sources, women who are recipients of government pensions, pay income tax, or are employees of the government won’t be eligible under the scheme. For now, the party is gearing up to pivot its campaign around the announcement. From Friday, a campaign will be launched to get AAP workers to register women to be enlisted as beneficiaries of the scheme.
“I urge my sisters to get to work and ensure that we win 60-65 (of 70) assembly seats in the Delhi elections. If we win fewer seats, they will poach our MLAs, break the government,” Kejriwal said.
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‘I know where to spend, where to save’
The Delhi finance department had raised questions over the scheme’s viability, saying it was difficult for Delhi, which is a Union territory, to roll it out owing to its inability to borrow from the market. The finance secretary projected the annual financial liability of the scheme, with the payout being Rs 1,000 per month, at Rs 4,560 crore in 2025-26, The Indian Express reported.
Political considerations appear to trump such concerns, though, like in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Assam and West Bengal, among other states, where similar assistance has been doled out. Efforts are also being made to roll out aid schemes for women in other states, including Himachal Pradesh and Telangana.
In 2019, the AAP government’s scheme under which women can travel for free in buses was also reported to have been red-flagged by the finance department.
Kejriwal said Thursday that he had faced similar concerns in 2013, when the AAP had announced free power in Delhi, but he proved the sceptics wrong.
“I am a magician, I am a magician of accounts, I know where to spend, where to save. The BJP does not have to worry,” the AAP national convenor said.
Ahead of the 2022 assembly polls in Punjab, Kejriwal had made a similar announcement for the women of the state where the AAP is now in power. But the scheme is yet to see the light of day, prompting Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira to “urge Delhi voters especially women folk not to be misled by Arvind Kejriwal promising to give Rs 1,000 monthly to women” in a post on X Thursday.
I urge Delhi voters especially women folk not to be misled by @ArvindKejriwal promising to give Rs 1000 monthly to women bcoz @AamAadmiParty govt in Punjab hasn’t payed a single penny to women since March 2022 despite making a similar promise there !
Once a LIAR always a LIAR !… pic.twitter.com/YtzcL4iYvC
— Sukhpal Singh Khaira (@SukhpalKhaira) December 12, 2024
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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