Chhattisgarh: Baghel woos women with Rs.15k dole

Raipur: Taking a leaf from his counterpart in Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel has pledged to provide an annual financial assistance of Rs 15,000 each to women, if Congress retained power in the state in the ongoing two-phase assembly polls.

“Today on the auspicious occasion of Diwali, with the grace of Goddess Lakshmi and blessings of Chhattisgarh Mahtari, an important decision has been taken for women power in the state. As soon as Congress forms government in the state, the Griha Lakshmi Yojana will come into force”, Mr Baghel said in his X post on Sunday.

Mr Baghel’s fresh announcement for women, which did not find the place in the manifesto released by Congress for Chhattisgarh recently, comes in the wake of the “Ladli Behna” scheme, launched by chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh around three months ago, being billed to be game changer for BJP in the November 17 assembly elections in the state.

BJP on Monday described the ‘new announcement’ by Congress as a sign of frustration over the prospect of loss of power by the ruling party in the state in the polls.

“The new announcement by Congress clearly indicates that the grand old party is losing the assembly polls in the state. The Congress has accepted its defeat”, state BJP president Arun Sao said.

BJP MP Vijay Baghel who is pitted against Mr Baghel in the latter’s home constituency of Patan called the fresh announcement by Mr Baghel as ‘fake promise’.

“The Congress has failed to fulfil its promises made before the 2018 assembly elections. The party is now coming out with new false promises every day”, he said.